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Striving to contribute to a world where everyone feels safe to openly discuss the importance of mental health, Southern California-based global lifestyle brand UGG® unveils its ‘FEEL HEARD’ campaign just ahead of Pride month. As an extension of this mission, and in celebration of the many expressions of Pride, UGG® is supporting The Trevor Project as it seeks to create a welcoming, loving world for LGBTQIA+ young people with 24/7 phone, text, and chat crisis services, advocacy, research, education and more.
Celebrating the launch with a $125,000 donation to The Trevor Project and the introduction of new Pride-inspired product styles, the ‘FEEL HEARD’ campaign stars advocate, writer, performer and public speaker ALOK (they/them), model Chloe Vero (she/her), yoga teacher and artist Isa’ah (he/him), science teacher and model Seb Moralez (they/them), and vintage collectors Robert and Orren (both he/him).
UGG® is proud to collaborate with The Trevor Project to bring their life-affirming services to the UGG® community of customers, fans, and followers. Now more than ever, it is vital to inspire resilience and dismantle the stigma some face when seeking mental health services. The brand’s donation will support The Trevor Project in reaching more youth and further advancing their mission to end suicide among LGBTQIA+ young people.
“The UGG brand’s generous support will help us continue scaling our 24/7 crisis services, in addition to expanding our suicide prevention programs across advocacy, research, education and more,” said Shira Kogan, Director of Corporate Partnerships at The Trevor Project. “Our research shows that LGBTQ youth feel empowered by brands that are visible in their support of LGBTQ identities, and UGG’s new Pride-inspired styles offer a great way to show support and celebration year-round.”
Extending the tactile and comforting feeling of UGG® to spring-ready sandals with lightweight puff and fluff uppers, the updated all-gender Pride Collection by UGG® consists of statement silhouettes featuring the brand’s signature sheepskin insole and Pride-inspired detailing. With complementing apparel pieces, the collection offers a full Pride look from head-to-toe.
As a continuation of the ‘FEEL HEARD’ campaign and celebration of Pride Month in June, UGG® will be hosting a panel Q&A event with ALOK and friends moderated by The Trevor Project at the UGG® Fifth Avenue flagship store on Tuesday, June 7, 2022. Open to the public, the conversation will consist of the panelists’ advocacy work for the LGBTQIA+ community. What’s more, the pride collection is available now for purchase at UGG.com, UGG® stores and select wholesale retailers nationwide.
office, sat down with campaign star, ALOK, to discuss the collection, pride, mental health, and more. Check out the interview below.
You’ve recently partnered with UGG to honor pride 2022, how does this partnership further amplify your mission?
My work is rooted in healing. Part of what makes us feel so lonely in this world is we are taught that love is contingent on our seeming triumphant and jovial. We are encouraged to privatize our pain, suppress what we’re going through, out of fear of being shunned. With my story in this campaign, I wanted to highlight a different kind of love: one that foregrounds people’s complexity and appreciates one another for who we are, not who we should be. I hope this affirmation makes people feel less isolated.
What does the phrase “feel heard’ mean to you?
As a gender non-conforming person, I often feel reduced to my appearance. People rarely take the time to regard my humanity. So often people feel like they know who I am better than I do and prioritize their projection over my reality. Or rather, I’m not allowed to have my reality. Because I’m not even considered real. Feeling heard is about being granted permission to tell my story on my terms. It’s about refusing reductive categories and bearing witness to my fullness. In this collection, UGG aims to highlight the importance of mental health & wellness through the promotion of the foundation's counseling services for the LGBTQIA+ youth.
What kinds of dialogue do you hope is sparked around this campaign?
2022 has some of the worst legislative attacks on LGBTQ communities in the US. This constant and thorough dehumanization takes a devastating toll on our mental health, especially for LGBTQIA+ youth. So many LGBTQIA+ youths I connect with tell me that they’re feeling impossible – they don’t think it will be possible to grow up (especially as a trans and gender non-conforming person). What I hope people can sit with is how at a fundamental level so many trans and gender non-conforming people are still fighting to exist. And for us, representation is about showing that our lives are possible and meaningful. It’s about showing that even though there is so much struggle, alongside it, so much beauty.
It’s always so wonderful to see brands who support the demonstration of pride during pride month. What about UGG screams pride to you?
Pride should be about amplifying LGBTQIA talent, leadership, and creative innovation. And that’s what we did together. My style is so important to how I show up in this world and I was thrilled with how I could express it with this campaign. This is who I am – on my terms. We were able to send out copies of my new poetry book Your Wound / My Garden to more folks. We were able to support an organization near and dear to my heart: The Trevor Project. And so much more.
UGG kicked off the campaign with a generous donation to the Trevor Project, which is an incredible resource, though I just want to ask what other resources you think should be highlighted.
The Trevor Project is the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ young people. It’s really important that we have organizations that are trained to address the specific mental health concerns of our community. In fact – 7/10 of LGBTQ youth specifically reach out to the Trevor Project because they are an expert on LGBTQ youth's mental health. If you are an LGBTQ young person struggling right now know that Trevor offers 24/7 phone, text, and chat crisis services.
Give the readers of office magazine three phrases that you swear by.
“I can’t be a pessimist because I’m alive” – James Baldwin
“The opposite of faith is not doubt, it’s certainty” – Anne Lamott
“Violence is an attempt to replace shame with self-esteem” – James Gilligan
On a personal level, how do you hope to dismantle and destigmatize the conversation around mental health? What can the average person do to educate themselves?
We must each prioritize our healing journeys. This work becomes at home. How we treat other people is a reflection of how we treat ourselves. Change begins with how we choose to show up in the world. I try my best to live outside of shame and continually choose compassion, even when it’s difficult. I hope that by showing up with vulnerability and love, I can change the people around me. And then that’s how we make large-scale change. The reverberations. How can we as a collective society tread towards a world where the dialogue around mental health is normalized? Look – this work is difficult. There’s pushback and perpetual doubt. There’s denial and outright demonization. People will go through great lengths to not have to encounter their repressed pain. But the only way that we can make change is by pushing through discomfort. And that requires courage. So be courageous: when you see people weaponizing shame, intervene. When you see people making assumptions about people’s mental health based on their appearance, say something. It’s in those moments of interruption, in those breaks, that possibility blooms.
UGG has replicated that comforting feeling that the Trevor Project offers to those around the world. What are some of your favorite pieces from the collection?
I love my Fluffy Pride slippers. They’re so chic and they bring smiles to me and the people around me – that fills me with so much joy!
Lastly, what can we expect to see from you as the year goes on?
I’m doing an event with some friends and the Trevor Project in June that I’m excited about! And then I’m going to be touring all across the US and Europe with my new comedy-poetry show. I haven’t been able to tour in so long, so I’m so thrilled to reconnect with my audiences.
As I walk down the radiating sidewalk, the perpetual heat pulsating through the soles of my sneakers, I take in the now mundane but none the less perfect relentlessness of the city’s holographic simulation-esc landscape.
The almost silent wizzing of a passing Tesla, who’s driver is deep in their phone, as their semi-automated vehicle plummets down Figueroa Street, Alo yoga out fits made to make the body look what we are told is perfect, a skateboarder rides past in all Supreme struggling to balance, a person who clearly has no home is covered in a deep layer of soot from the city's atmosphere which reflects the general ethos of the city which reflects the general dreams of America which reflects the demise of humanity bathing in opulence and ignorance.
Everyone passing by has became so accustomed to ignoring this person that they actually have became invisible to all people around them despite the severity of their appearance and obviousness of the desperation of their situation. But what can be done?
Sometimes it feels as if we have reached a space that is so obsessed with the pretend that it now has devoured reality and now that we have reached a new existence based in abstraction rather than meaning, that we can only stare deeper into the “digital” and turn away from the “natural.”
“Reality” has shown to be less valuable than “Fantasy.”
Left: Dress KIMHEKIM, scarf BOTTER. Right: Shirts, pants, coat, gloves, shoes CRAIG GREEN.
Left: Dress NOIR KEI NINOMIYA, shoes CRAIG GREEN. Right: Jacket, pants, shirt KUSIKOHC.
Sweater and shoes CRAIG GREEN, skirt MAISON MIHARA YASUHIRO.
Vault by Vans and Southern California-based retailer BLENDS have long since brought us bold, innovative collaborations. With each one, we have seen new and insightful iterations of a similar theme— Vans’ Jazz Stripe logo with an anatomical aesthetic twist.
The latest translation of BLENDS’ famous bone graphics on classic Vans models is the "Magic Tape" Pack— a nod to BLENDS' Japanese heritage in the form of a velcro-backed OG Style 36 LX, embellished with bone design in three colorways.
The Vault by Vans x BLENDS OG Style 36 LX collection will roll out via BLENDS’ e-shop and retail locations this Saturday, June 18 with the marshmallow pair, and the green pair concluding the rollout on July 2. For more information on where to puchase head to The Drop List.
We present to you, “PLAY”— a capsule by ASLAN available exclusively on Basic.Space. ASLAN, though a newer name, is a the brand that's brought us nothing but edge since it's start— by way of intricate, modern metalwork and a couture take on historic chainmail pieces. While the brand's work has become a staple at the MET Gala and on red carpets alike, ASLAN hasn't compromised their uniquely tongue-in-cheek ethos, as evidenced by the latest collection and it's accompanying campaign and ASMR video, featuring a favorite face of ours at office, model and new food-fluencer, Gabbriette.
Thirteen stainless steel objects play with past and future, and take them into the kitchen. For the Basic.Space exclusive, each item weaves and warps together inspiration from a retro-futuristic iteration of reality, an interpretation of the modern housewife, and a fantastical, nostalgic picture of the "automated home", as depicted in 1950-60s films.
"The “PLAY” collection campaign influences the conversation of the art of “fixing what's not broken” and the critique on design, Ai technology, and the timeless human intuition to make even a simple task complicated."
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