HannahJoy

HannahJoy has been such a blessing to me during my time at Purdue. She is such a great friend! She is the one who passed on the One Dress idea to me. She committed to wear the same dress for one month (the month of September). Here is her outfit...one version of it anyway. She did a great job of changing the look of her dress. If you would like to commit to wearing the same dress/outfit for a period of time just let me know! It is a great way to start conversations about the slave labor used in every day products that we use, like clothing. It is just one way to help spread the word of modern slavery and help give people the tools to end this injustice.

The Dress

So here is the dress plain and simple. This is after I did the altering...but it wasn't much.

I made this pin/button from a little kit from the craft store. It was HJ's idea. The main reason being that since we are students at Purdue we see so many people each day that it might take weeks, months, or maybe never, for people to realize that we were actually wearing the same outfit. So we were hoping that the pins would be conversations starters, giving us an opportunity to share more.

An Idea is Born

In a nut shell, the purpose of this blog is to spread the word of Modern Slavery and then help provide tools for fighting this injustice. The issue of modern slavery has been heavy on my heart for about two years now, ever since I learned about how prominent an issue it was at an Intervarsity conference. I was really challenged to investigate where the things that I purchased came from and whether or not I was inadvertently supporting the slave trade. This website helped me a lot in that search: http://www.free2work.org/. Ever since the conference I've been really interested in spreading the word about this very real injustice. Then just a few months ago my dear friend, HJ, shared an idea she found about wearing the same dress for a year to raise awareness and support for a specific cause. We both thought that the modern slavery and human trafficking issue fit well in this "dress advocacy" so we started praying about whether it was a good idea and whether it would work into our college lives. After about a month I decided that I would do it. One dress for one year. I actually decided to wear the dress for one school year (so two semesters). After deciding "yes" I was then faced with another challenge...finding a dress that I could wear for six months. My challenge was increased by the fact that I have student teaching next semester and am required to look "professional". So I had to find a dress that was casual enough for every day wear but also able to dress up enough to do my student teaching. God provided! I found a dress at Goodwill that I thought would work. It was a size 18 (and I am about a 10) but I sew so I was hoping that it would end up being "the one." And it did! I cut out a few chunks of fabric on the sides of the bodice and had to adjust the waist band, but overall it was a pretty easy process. HJ decided to participate as well so we bought some buttons to wear that said "One dress, One year" or "One dress, One month" (because HJ decided to wear her dress for one month.) And we were off! Ready to share with people about the injustice of Modern Slavery and the many shapes and forms it can come in AND what we can do to help bring justice to an area of blatant injustice.