I blogged about green models the other day, but I intentionally skipped over Lauren Bush. Lauren, the granddaughter of former President George H. W. Bush and the niece of former President George W. Bush, is both a model and fashion designer.
As you might imagine, Lauren was born in Texas. She graduated from The Kindaid School in Houston then studied fashion design at Parsons The New School for Design and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. In 2006, she graduated from Princeton University with an Anthropology degree.
Although only 5’7” (short in Model Land), Lauren signed with the Elite Model Management and has been on the covers of Vogue and Vanity Fair. She has also modeled for Tommy Hilfiger, Isaac Mizrahi, Gai Mattiolo, and Abercrombie & Fitch.
But, Lauren also has another passion – helping people. As a student ambassador for the World Food Program in 2005, Lauren traveled to Chad. She teamed up with the United Nations World Food Program to create the FEED Projects.
FEED Projects fights world hunger by selling bags for the World Food Program school-feeding program. Profits from these eco-friendly burlap bags go to feed improvised children and have a two-fold effect – the program not only feeds the children, but because it is a school program, it also helped them get an education and become self-reliant. The bags are 100% organic and only fair labor facilities are used to make them.
When you check out the FEED Projects home page, you will see the bags aren’t cheap. But, considering there are approximately 400 million hungry children in the world and FEED Project managed to feed 40,000+ from the bag’s sales this year, it is well worth the cost.
In September 2008, Lauren launched her own sustainable clothing line, Lauren Pierce. The line uses artisan textiles and eco-friendly fabrics. For each of her collections, Lauren plans to team up with a different women’s cause. For example, for her 2009 spring collection, she worked with Women for Women International, which teach the women of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to hand-dye fabrics. Part of the proceeds of the collection sales goes back to the artisans.
(This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.)
