Solange Knowles Co-Designed a Trio of White Shirts to Combat Slavery

Solange Knowles in a TOME top that she co-designed for the White Shirt Project 3.0. Photo: BFAnyc.com/Courtesy

Fashion magpie Solange Knowles is no stranger to wearing outré looks, but when the opportunity arose to collaborate with Ryan Lobo and Ramon Martin of TOME on their worthwhile White Shirt Project, the style star didn’t hesitate to embrace the staple item. Now in its third iteration, the White Shirt Project features — you guessed it — all white blouses, the proceeds of which benefit industry pioneer Katie Ford’s Freedom For All organization. The incredible charity aims to liberate the 27 million (!) enslaved people living in the world today. “This is a very real and very global issue that needs attention brought to it immediately,” says Knowles. “I am happy to stand alongside the important work Katie Ford and TOME have been doing here – it’s an issue very close to my heart.”

To commemorate the third round of this important initiative, Solo partnered with the TOME designers to create not one but three garments — a blouse with ruffles down the front, a polo shirtdress, and a collared v-neck number with bell sleeves. She wore the latter at a lunch to celebrate the project’s launch at Art Basel, pairing it with a full black skirt, strappy heels, and a Mark Cross box bag. Given her fashion pedigree, this was no run-of-the-mill operation. “Solange is a fabulously stylish woman,” Lobo told Yahoo Style. “She pulled some pieces from the Spring collection that we didn’t even put on the runway and that was the beginning of this collaboration.”

Knowles with TOME designers (from left) Ramon Martin, Ryan Lobo, and Katie Ford at the Nautilus hotel in Miami. Photo: BFAnyc.com/Courtesy

The shirts, which will retail for anywhere from $475 — $695, will retail on Net-a-Porter starting today with all of the proceeds going toward the FFA. Additionally Lobo was keen to mention that these pieces are made in Manhattan (aka slavery free). “For us, it’s our obligation,” he says. “Slavery is very much a part of the fashion industry, that’s how H&M and all those places keep their costs down. We can say that our clothing is slavery free from the cotton fiber to the mills, to the making of it. Everything is made in America. Thats important for us.”

The designers, who became affiliated with the cause after attending one of Ford’s fundraising events, couldn’t be more passionate about the project having witnessed its benefits firsthand. “We met some of the women that Katie helped liberate which was so heartwarming and so moving,” confides Lobo. “There are so many girls who she has literally, actively taken out of slave labor, put them in a car and driven them off to freedom. So the first time we launched this project together, we did threw a little party and a few of the women that were freed came. One of them now has her own catering company so she did the food. That was amazing.”

Models in the three pieces for the White Shirt Project 3.0. Photo: Courtesy

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.