Impact Interview: Cara Smyth
Name: Cara Smyth
Role/Function: Founder & Chair, Fashion Makes Change
What She’s Currently Working On:
I wear a couple of hats, including being Founder and Chair of the recently launched Fashion Makes Change (FMC), a project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, an industry-wide initiative to deliver women’s empowerment and climate action in tandem. FMC works in partnership across the apparel industry to build resilient communities by accelerating a global educational agenda of women’s empowerment and gender equity in supply chain communities.
We launched our consumer-facing program, “Your Change Can Change Everything”, in celebration of International Women’s Day, where participating brands invite customers at the point of sale to round up their purchase to the nearest dollar to make a donation to support women’s empowerment. Many brands match and/or donate, and all funds raised directly support leading women's empowerment programming via the Empower@Work Collaborative, a joint effort of the United Nations ILO-IFC Better Work, BSR HERproject, CARE International, and Gap Inc.’s P.A.C.E. program.
We have been thrilled at the momentum of the movement and to see the message amplified across TV and the press, including Vogue.com, WWD, InStyle.com, and Forbes just to highlight a few! Post pandemic, it is heartening to see systems change is possible and underway. Also incredibly exciting to think about the scale of the fashion industry and its potential to scale positive impact when we work collectively.
1. What was the “aha” moment that sparked your interest in social impact?
To me, creative industries have always driven and reflected the cultural change, and as the world faced an increasing number of global challenges, I asked myself, “What can I do, in my own life, to make fashion a force for good?” After working for several years in Europe for fashion brands such as Jil Sander, Hugo Boss, and Burberry, I wanted to help lead the responsible redesign of our industry. We have less than 2,500 days left until irreversible climate change, and the fashion ecosystem system can lead the way to mitigate this crisis via various paths, such as through regenerative agriculture, renewable energy, and just and fair transitions of the workforce.
2. How did you break into the social impact space?
On the heels of the Rana Plaza Factory Collapse, I began to wonder what systems change could actually look like. I thought, “How might we identify actionable business solutions that the industry could readily adopt to drive responsible retail practices?” I began to meet with fashion industry CEOs, who agreed to convene and establish a collective impact agenda. That group has since grown and is now housed at the Responsible Business Coalition at Fordham University Gabelli School of Business. We work privately and collectively with 47 CEOs, representing over 275 brands. Fashion Makes Change was born out of these CEO conversations and the industry’s commitment to amplifying women’s education and empowerment in supply communities, with a recognition of the size and global scale of the industry, the workforce, and our ability to catalyze change.
3. What most excites you about the social impact space right now?
In 2020, as the pandemic progressed, stores closed and customers stopped shopping, it became ever more evident that the world is interconnected, and we are all reliant on each other. We are seeing a collision of market forces – radical transparency, increased investor interest in ESG – more than ever before driving business to be a force for good.
We are entering into a conscious, more mindful time, but collective action will be required. Each one of us plays a part in designing the future we hope to see. FMC’s mission is to bring strange bedfellows together and build a community of stakeholders. The idea of FMC is: how do we all engage, as global citizens, and be part of the solution. To see consumers, brands, nonprofits, philanthropy, and even media come together and use the power we all have to drive change is a remarkable thing and our hope is that we are paving a new path.
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