GUAP Issue 18 cover star Giovanni creator of fashion brand XDREAMS shared an inspiring new initiative over the past week. With a well thought out message of giving back, Giovanni has created three funds to help his community.

With the Black Lives Matter movement gaining momentum over the last couple of months we have seen numerous brands release t-shirts with designs that illustrate what everyone is fighting for. The sales made from the T-shirts are then donated to various charities or organisations that are relevant to the movement.

However, a key part of advancing the movement is directly providing black people in our communities the means to elevate themselves and be self-sufficient and the XDREAMS funds do just that.

In June XDREAMS released the BLM Karma tees with graphic text that read ‘until all of us are free, none of us are free’. The money made from the sales of these t-shirts have been used to giveaway food and back to school essentials as well as assist an upcoming black owned brand.

The XDREAMS funds

• £500 in grocery shopping vouchers for young black mothers in South London.
• 50 XDREAMS branded backpacks filled with stationery and a cap from the brand for school kids.
• Covering the expenses of a product from a black owned clothing brand up to £500 to assist them in making 100% profit from their sales.

This way of giving back is a refreshing alternative to giving the sales money to charity. The XDREAMS give back initiatives are intentional, purposeful and thoughtful, ensuring that the people the fund is intended for will receive the help directly. As well as demonstrating that Giovanni is personally connected to and invested in the community he comes from by opening his purse.

XDREAMS give back ties in to Giovanni’s slogan ‘direction over speed’ as running the initiative himself is surely more time consuming than giving the money to a charity to do the work instead. While I’m not intending to chastise the brands who have given back in this way, for many brands there is often a disconnect between their messaging and their actions. Many fashion brands are mostly optics with not much else.

As a brand there should be cohesion in everything you do publicly and privately and Giovanni’s commitment to distributing everything himself points to XDREAMS being a brand with real substance and integrity.