Ralph Lauren Polo Project shirt available online soon
AMERICAN artist Michelle Smith has won the Ralph Lauren Polo Project ‘Design for Good’ competition, and her original depiction will be available through the Ralph Lauren website soon.
The Ralph Lauren Project Hope winning design, ‘Just Let Me Breathe’
The winner was chosen from among 10 finalists by the Ralph Lauren men’s and women’s design teams following a public vote earlier this month, and the artist was selected based on her message of ‘Just Let Me Breathe’ which featured her son wearing a mask and the word, ‘hope’.
“We can argue that hope is simply a felling, but I believe hope can be a movement,” said Michelle Smith, from Springfield, Illinois. “As a woman of colour I know this to be true. The opportunity to artistically show the necessity for hope for a people, a culture, a nation, was an opportunity I could not let pass.”
In honour of the artist’s message and as part of a pledge to address systemic racism and racial injustice, the Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation will donate to the UNCF, the United Negro College Fund. The sales and proceeds from the winning, original design shirt will support the World Health Organisation’s Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the prevention, detection and response to the global pandemic.
“Today one of our many hoes, so fresh, is the hope of healing in the world due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” added Michelle Smith, “the hope to go back to what was normal, socialising with each other and mask-free hugs. Thank you to the Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation for being such a big part of a movement. Thank you to the Polo Project for giving artists this opportunity to be a part of and play a role in that movement.”
American artist Michelle Smith has won the Ralph Lauren Project Hope competition
For more about the artist and the inspiration behind the winning design and to sign up to be notified when the shirt releases, download #ThePoloApp at the App Store or on Google Play or see online at https://www.ralphlauren.com.
