NEW YORK — EDUN, the socially conscious clothing brand created by Ali Hewson, Bono and New York clothing designer Rogan Gregory, has partnered with ONE to launch a new ONE T-shirt made by EDUN at Nordstrom stores and Nordstrom.com ($40 retail). The project will help fight global AIDS and extreme poverty, and bring fair trade and AIDS treatment to factory workers and their families in Lesotho, Africa.

(Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20001011/NORDLOGO

By buying this T-shirt, made in Lesotho of 100% African cotton, consumers will help bring trade to an area with extremely high unemployment. Located in southern Africa, Lesotho’s apparel industry is the major form of employment sector in this landlocked country of 1.8 million people, accounting for approximately 40% of the country’s jobs. With an average per capita income of just $402, Lesotho is classified as one of the poorest developing countries in the world.

By wearing this T-shirt, people will also join ONE in the fight against global AIDS and extreme poverty. ONE is a new effort to rally Americans to do even more to save lives in Africa and the world’s poorest countries.

EDUN will donate $10 from every T-shirt sold to the Apparel Lesotho Alliance to Fight AIDS (ALAFA) fund, which provides life-saving prevention and medicines to factory workers and their family members in Lesotho. The initiative will help 45,000 Lesotho apparel workers — mostly women and one third of whom are estimated to be infected with HIV — fight back against a pandemic that claims the lives of roughly 2,300 people in Lesotho’s apparel industry every year.

Lesotho has one of the highest AIDS rates in the world, with 29% of the population infected. More than 55,000 of those infected are in desperate need of anti-retroviral therapy, a figure vastly outnumbering the 1,000 currently receiving these essential life-saving drugs.

The print campaign shot by supermodel and photographer Helena Christensen was art directed by Tar Art Media co-founder Evan Schindler who was the founder, creative and editorial director of BlackBook magazine for ten years before selling it in 2005.

Top names in Hollywood and music, Naomi Watts, Kate Bosworth, Lindsay Lohan, Rosario Dawson, Djimon Hounsou, Q-Tip, Gary Oldman, Gabriel Byrne, Peter Sarsgaard, Jimmy Fallon, Damon Dash and Rachel Roy, plus indie favorites Mark Ronson, James Iha, MisShapes, Saul Williams, Ben Cho, Diego Garcia (Elephant) gave their invaluable support to help reach and engage people in the fight against global AIDS and extreme poverty. The entire campaign is available to view on http://www.edun.ie and on http://www.ONE.org (as of Sept 1).

The ONE T-shirt made by EDUN, will be available at Nordstrom on September 11, 2006. The tee will be sold exclusively at Nordstrom (USA), Harvey Nichols (UK), Printemps (France) and Isetan (Japan) as well as online at one.org, edun.ie, nordstrom.com.

Contact Details:

EDUN Europe — Katie Tilleke, E: [email protected]
T: 00 44 207 907 7147

EDUN US and outside EU — Bridget Russo, E: [email protected]
T: 001 646 827 7563

ONE — Meighan Stone, E: [email protected]
T: 202-464-1345

Nordstrom — John Bailey, E: [email protected]
T: 206-373-2415

The on-going “Power In Your Pocket” Campaign:

EDUN will aim to create an annual brand initiative to provide additional trade and employment to Lesotho. In addition, via this partnership a significant donation will be made to ALAFA or other community building efforts. As an on-going brand initiative third parties will be considered and approached to help deliver this message.

About EDUN

Created by Ali Hewson and Bono with designer Rogan Gregory, EDUN is a socially conscious clothing brand spearheading ethical consumerism. EDUN aims to bring the issue of long-term sustainable employment in the developing world to the international fashion arena via the design of beautiful clothes.

EDUN is a for-profit initiative endeavoring to create a business model, blueprint and infrastructure that promotes, encourages and returns social value to local workforces and communities in the developing world, especially Africa.

According to DATA, Africa has lost 6% of world trade since the 1970’s. If they could regain just 1% of that, Africa would earn $70 billion a year. They currently receive only $22 billion a year in aid.

About ONE

ONE is a new effort by Americans to rally Americans — ONE by ONE — to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty. ONE is students and ministers, punk rockers and NASCAR moms, Americans of all beliefs and every walk of life, united as ONE to help make poverty history. ONE believes that allocating an additional ONE percent of the U.S. budget toward providing basic needs like health, education, clean water and food would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the world’s poorest countries. ONE also calls for debt cancellation, trade reform and anti-corruption measures in a comprehensive package to help Africa and the poorest nations beat AIDS and extreme poverty.

ONE aims to help Americans raise their voice as ONE against the emergency of AIDS and extreme poverty, so that decision makers will do more to save millions of lives in the poorest countries.