Those who follow the blog will certainly have already heard of Matteo Ward and his WRÅD, which over time has become, as well as a sustainable clothing brand, also a consulting service for brands that have the desire to approach the world of social responsibility and environmental and an educational format for students on the real, environmental and social costs of the fashion industry.
Now Matteo is launching a new project, Sow – School of WRÅD, the first independent and digital platform entirely dedicated to the culture of sustainability, with the urgent and ambitious goal of giving birth to a new form of activism in the new generations by spreading the truth around to the theme of fashion and sustainability.
The aim is to inspire and mobilize a growing number of people by providing them with the tools to counter the status quo of the fashion system. “Now, more than ever, says Matteo, the truth about fashion and sustainability is artificially controlled by businesses focused solely on profit, to the detriment of millions of people and the environment, clarity and transparency is needed! However, education and information about this issue which is so vitale for life on our planet has become a business, instead of an inclusive service that is accessible to all, this is a dangerous torn of events.”
School of WRÅD will be structured with videos and texts in the three modules ‘Better Design’, ‘Better Communication’ and ‘Better Management’, based on three pillars: independence, accessibility and inclusion, which constitute the natural response to the need to guarantee integrity to the contents of courses and accessibility globally in terms of cost, language and business model: each course sold will offer School of WRÅD participants the opportunity to sponsor the free distribution of educational packages and facilities to children whose education on the topic is today denied, as in Vietnam, Bangladesh, India and even Iran thanks to the collaboration with Fashion Revolution Iran.
Again in collaboration with Fashion Revolution, WRÅD managed to distribute its educational projects for free to more than 11,000 Italian students of secondary schools and universities in 2018 and 2019, to set up partnerships with 16 universities and to offer its workshop in 102 countries around the world.
School of WRÅD will also be opened up to third parties, offering the opportunity to professionals, innovators and creative talents to present and promote their own courses, on condition they align with the mission of the school and are linked to the three macro-themes: sustainable design, responsible communication and management of sustainable development.
For the launch of the SOW – School of WRÅD project, a crowdfunding campaign was launched on the Indiegogo platform on 24 November, giving the public the opportunity to participate in the construction of the project and become founders of the school.
The fundraising campaign, to which everyone is called to give their contribution and which will expire at the end of the year, is necessary to support WRÅD in the final production of the digital platform and in the translation of the contents into several local languages such as Hindi and Farsi, a necessary step to make the project more inclusive by breaking down language barriers.
