Meet the 2018 CAFA Fashion Impact Award Nominees: The Pin Project

I recently met Hedvig Alexander, the founder of Far + Wide Collective, at a dinner. It’s impossible not to fall under her heady spell of honest-to-goodness-humanitarianism, steadfast social advocacy and disarmingly friendly demeanor. She talks as easily about jewelry design and far flung travel as she does the refugee crisis in Syria.

Her latest project, dubbed The Pin Project, is one of the many worthy ventures that has been nominated for this year’s Fashion Impact category at the 2018 CAFA Awards. For the project, she has teamed up with Toronto-based jewelry designer Jenny Bird to design a piece of jewelry that artisans in several parts of the world could make, even with the most basic of equipment. According to Bird, “all of the artisans making the pins are refugees, many permanently displaced. The pins give them income opportunities they wouldn’t normally have.”

About the inspiration behind the design, Bird explains, “the simple brass piece is modeled after a kite, a symbol inspired by one father’s commitment to keeping joy alive by making kites for the children in his refugee community.”

This pretty piece is a great gift to give or to get. Plus, knowing that you’re wearing a symbol of hope and optimism makes the grey months we’ve just experienced just a little bit brighter.

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Photography via Far + Wide Collective

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the pin project jenny bird