From Ralph Lauren’s Pink Pony Campaign, to survivors of breast cancer walking the NYFW runway, these brands are championing Breast Cancer Awareness through fashion.
Although breast cancer has affected women throughout history, it wasn’t spoken about in the open until the 20th Century. Prior to the 1970s, Breast Cancer often went undetected because the topic was considered taboo or seen as an embarrassment. This gradually began to change throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before 1985, when October started to be recognized as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Pinktober is a time to encourage women to get mammograms (an effective tool to diagnose cancer quickly), raise awareness of the illness, and pay for treatments. Pink ribbons — the international breast cancer emblem — have become ubiquitous – and pink balls, bats, and cleats are used by the National Football League, Major League Baseball, NBA, and other men’s sporting leagues.
As Breast cancer mainly affects women, it makes sense that the fashion and beauty industries have also played a significant role in marking the occasion. From brands like Estée Lauder, which created the pink ribbon thirty years ago, to survivors of breast cancer walking the NYFW runway, fashion has found inventive ways to draw attention to the illness diagnosed in 287,850 women annually.
As a breast cancer survivor, Evelyn H. Lauder, the daughter-in-law of Estée and Joseph Lauder, founded the Estée Lauder Companies Breast Cancer Campaign in 1992 and co-created the signature pink ribbon with Alexandra Penney, the editor of SELF magazine at the time. While working to raise money for research and medical aid, Lauder also founded the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. This year, Estée Lauder marks 30 years of the Estée Lauder Companies Breast Cancer Campaign, which now supports over 60 organizations worldwide. Together, the Estée Lauder Companies Charitable Foundation and The Breast Cancer Campaign have raised over $108 million for global research, education, and medical services pertaining to breast cancer.
Another trailblazing brand that brought breast cancer to the forefront of social consciousness was Ralph Lauren. After Ralph Lauren’s friend, Nina Hyde, was diagnosed with breast cancer in the mid-1980s, he galvanized the fashion industry to help. After raising enough money to open the Nina Hyde Center for Breast Cancer Research at Georgetown University in 1989, the fashion designer was instrumental in opening cancer centers in Harlem and London. The brand’s breast cancer initiative later progressed into the Pink Pony Campaign, a global philanthropic program dedicated to cancer care. For 22 years, Pink Pony has worked to improve cancer care, find a cure, and help ensure access to quality treatment at an earlier stage. The campaign includes an annual capsule collection to benefit the Pink Pony Fund. This year, the Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation donated $25 million to establish new Ralph Lauren cancer centers and expand pre-existing centers.
Beyond raising money for research, women are working towards breaking the stigma surrounding mastectomies through fashion. During New York, Fashion Week 2021, Erika Hart, a Black queer femme activist, writer, educator, and breast cancer survivor, walked for the Chromat x Tourmaline runway show. While walking, Hart wore a red one-piece swimsuit, pulling the top down to reveal their post-mastectomy scars and reconstructed breasts. Shortly after, in an interview with Mission, Hart spoke on their activism surrounding intersectional breast cancer awareness “I hope to bring the presence of nonbinary, Black, gender variant, and queer people who experience cancer. Many cancer campaigns are directed at one audience. It’s affirming to be included and to be seen in that way. I hope other cancer survivors and future cancer patients can see themselves and do the necessary checkups.”
In 2019, Savage X Fenty raised breast cancer awareness via a limited edition capsule collection. The marketing campaign initially focused on young women with breast cancer whom they heralded as Thrivers: Stephanie Seban, Bianca Muniz, Johanna De La Cruz, and Nalie Agustin. The following year, Breast cancer survivor Kenneth Todd Nelson modeled for the campaign, drawing attention to the fact that, although rare, men can also be diagnosed with what is often considered a “women’s disease.”
More recently, Savage X Fenty released their third consecutive Breast Cancer Awareness capsule collection. In partnership with Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF), Savage X Fenty donated $180,000 to the charitable organization Keep A Breast to provide grants to BIPOC women who are breast cancer survivors or have been diagnosed with breast cancer.
What was once an unspoken disease with many silent sufferers is now a widely understood illness with a network of support for sufferers and survivors. The fashion and beauty industry has made great strides in raising money for cancer research and treatment. Their next focus? Making sure that work reaches marginalized communities.
Image courtesy of Ralph Lauren
