£370 That’s what top fashion label charges for this World Food Programme T-shirt £37 And that’s how much of each sale fights hunger
IT’S just a simple T-shirt with the logo of a UN agency tackling hunger – but it’s selling on the high street for up to £370 and is worn by celebrities such as Rihanna and Kanye West.
However, last night the T-shirt’s designer was criticised for ‘exploiting people’s desire to help the starving’ after it was revealed that only ten per cent of each sale goes to the World Food Programme.
The WFP logo features on the shirts, as well as a £265 baseball cap, £535 bum bag, £545 scarf and a £1,375 jacket. They are all made for a fraction of the sale price, with the T-shirt estimated to cost no more than £15 to produce.
Balenciaga, a fashion house favoured by A-listers, says its collaboration with the WFP is to raise awareness of global hunger. But Caryn Franklin, former presenter of BBC’s The Clothes Show said: ‘This is a new low for the fashion industry. It’s exploitation of people’s desire to help the starving. This is a brand that is raking in the cash and is keeping 90 per cent of the money that could go to feeding people on the verge of death.’
She says her own charity, Fashion Targets Breast Cancer, gave all profits from sales of specially designed T-shirts to fund research into the disease.
Former Vogue magazine executive Bronwyn Cosgrave said: ‘I feel they should give 100 per cent of the sales away to the WFP. They could easily do that and it would make a world of difference. Also, what was the WFP thinking about giving their brand value away for a paltry ten per cent?’
The T-shirt bears the WFP logo of a fist clutching a sheaf of corn with the slogan ‘Changing lives, saving lives’ across the back. One fashion buyer with 35 years’ experience said it would cost Balenciaga between £4 and £15 to produce. The £545 hooded sweatshirt from the WFP collection has even higher margins, according to the same buyer. The buyer added: ‘There is nothing special about the material, cut or finish. These are essentially basic stock items – caps, tees and hoodies – that a factory might have in their range and then a brand could add a logo or design to and sell on. ‘I am seriously struggling to see how any business can justify charging hundreds of pounds for a cotton T-shirt with a single-colour print design, however good the quality is. The margins on that would be staggering.’ Balenciaga was founded in Spain in 1919 by Cristobel Balenciaga. Demma Gvasalia, described as ‘the world’s most in-demand designer’, became creative director in 2015. It is owned by Kering – a luxury group based in Paris whose other brands include Gucci and Saint Laurent. Group revenue for 2017 was just over £13billion.
When Balenciaga announced the WFP partnership, Gvasalia called it ‘an important step in making fashion useful in a different way and supporting good causes with our products whenever possible’. As well as the proceeds from the clothes, the company has donated about £195,000 to WFP.
A WFP spokesman said Balenciaga suggested the partnership, adding: ‘WFP is very grateful for the global awareness and funding that this partnership has generated for our life-saving work.’ Balenciaga did not respond to questions from The Mail on Sunday.