Partners
Project champion and sponsor
Karen Millen
www.karenmillen.com
After graduating in 1981 from Rochester School of Fashion, Karen and her business partner Kevin Stanford set up the Karen Millen company. With a loan of just £100, the pair bought one hundred metres of white cotton and began manufacturing and selling white shirts to their friends.
The brand continued to expand throughout the Nineties until it was acquired in June 2004 by Mosaic Fashions Ltd (controlled by Baugur Group) in a deal creating a leading womenswear retailer with four strong brands—Oasis, Coast, Karen Millen, and Whistles.
Since Karen sold her company, she is fully committed in supporting young people through her two charities. The first being the Gateway School of Fashion and the Teens Unite Charity, dedicated to improve the lives of young people aged between 13-24 Fighting Cancer and life limiting illnesses.
Karen continues a close relationship with Rochester School of Fashion and accepted an Honorary Fellowship from the University in June 2002.
In the 2008 New Year Honours List, Karen was honoured an OBE for her services to the Retail Industry. The Honours list reflects and pays tribute to outstanding achievements and services right across the community. Karen will receive this OBE on 11 June 2008.
Project partner
University for the Creative Arts
www.ucreative.ac.uk
It all began when Karen Millen contacted the University in 2006 to get help and support in setting up the Gateway School of Fashion. Karen initially contacted Sheelagh Wright (her former tutor) whereby Sheelagh gained full support from the University via Vivienne Hibberd, the Widening Participation, Fair Access and Retention Manager. The Widening Participation Office has helped to contribute funding to the project, which has paid for staff teaching visits and publicity for the project and WP Office staff have also contributed their time to this exciting project.
Staff and students at the University will be supporting the Gateway School of Fashion through the writing of the curriculum, teaching visits and providing teaching and learning materials.
HOPEHIV is about the generation of hope. The charity supports children and young people in sub-Saharan Africa orphaned or affected by HIV/AIDS. HOPEHIV believes they have the potential to make Africa’s future one of hope, rather than despair.
HOPEHIV’s work generates real hope through:
Emotional and social support
Education
Economic empowerment
Child rights
“Some people dream at night about changing the world…others stay awake and do it” – Phil Wall, founder of HOPEHIV
www.projectgateway.co.za
Project Gateway
Project Gateway based in Kwa-Zulu Natal is one of the poorest provinces in South Africa this was the site selected by Karen Millen and Sheelagh Wright after a visit in January 2007 to be the location of the first fashion school. The building complex was an old apartheid prison, which was donated to three churches in 1991. The English, African and Zulu churches wanted to provide a safe environment for income generating projects; today it has eight successful projects such as; woodwork, bead making, and batik painting; all income generating. There is a community school, homeless shelter, a centre for HIV children, a pregnancy crisis centre, peer education and a community care project.
Project Gateway owns and runs two shops in Kwa-Zulu Natal selling African designs in beading, craftwork and some clothes with 75 producer groups contributing to their stock. They have an annual turnover of over £50,000 and are members of the International Federation for Alternative Trade. They have also exported items internationally and have attended shows in New York and London with their products. This project does provide existing national and international market routes for the ‘ Karen Millen Fashion Products’
Project Gateway Mission:
To change people’s lives by helping them physically, emotionally and spiritually.