Lookbook

Nelson Mandela
For nearly 400 years, Robben Island was a place of banishment, exile and isolation. Rulers sent those labeled as political troublemakers, social outcasts, and those unwanted by society to waste away in this desolate location. It was known as a place that broke the morale of even the strongest men. However, 25 years of confinement failed to take the morale of one man: Nelson Mandela.

Aung San Suu Kyi
Oxford trained and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi believed that her fellow citizens of Myanmar should be free from the military junta that controlled the country. Suu Kyi truly believed that she could lead the country towards democracy. This idea was championed in 1990 when she won the general election to become the country’s first democratically elected Prime Minister. This forced the junta to regain its rule and tighten its control by refusing to recognize the election results. Arguably the world’s most famous prisoner, she has been under house arrest by the military government since 1989.

Benazir Bhutto
Rawalpindi is a hot spot for political and social events in Pakistan. The first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan was assassinated in this city. Benazir’s own father, former President of Pakistan, was also executed in Rawalpindi. Neither fazed the champion of democratic Pakistan, who had been urged to protect herself. On December 27, 2007, Bhutto chose to wave to supporters following a PPP Rally. This proved to be the final moment of her life, but a pivotal moment in the freedom of Pakistan.

Cesar Chavez
In March 1966, the National Farm Workers Association led a strike of California grape pickers on a historic march from the town of Delano to the state capital of Sacramento. This protest, in favor of higher wages, was led by Cesar Estrada Chavez. Chavez, a farm worker of Mexican-American descent, became a labor leader and a champion of Mexican-American civil rights.

Marie Curie
Today one in fifteen people will die of cancer. Cancer invades the body and attacks neighboring tissue, depriving the body of nutrients. Radiation is one of the first effective cancer treatments. Aided by her discovery of the radioactive elements radium and polonium, Marie Curie accelerated the development of radiation treatment. In an age when she was denied admittance to Krakow University for being a woman, she became the first woman to teach at the University of Paris, and her scientific achievements gained her the distinction of being the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences.

Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart believed that she could accomplish anything. Earhart was the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. The most famous pilot probably to ever live, Earhart wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences, and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots. She believed that every flight and record she broke was a flight and record broke for all women. Although she disappeared trying to circumnavigate the globe in a plane, Earhart proved that even in death, women could rise to new heights.

Oskar Schindler

blood heart group tshirt shindler

Oskar Schindler was a German Industrialist credited with saving almost 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by having them work in his factories in the Czech Republic and Germany. Although a wealthy member of the Nazi party, Schindler bankrupted himself in order to bribe officials and care for his workers. Oskar Schindler’s exceptional deeds stemmed from his own elementary sense of decency and humanity that our sophisticated age seldom admires.

Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull’s courage was legendary. As principal chief and holy man of the Lakota people, he refused to willingly accept the onset of white settlers who wanted to take his ancestors’ tribal lands for mining purposes. Sitting Bull vowed to never sign a treaty that would give away Lakota land and place his people on reservations. Showing no fear, Sitting Bull fought the white soldiers and led his people to many victories. One of these victories happened to be The Battle of Little Bighorn, or “Custer’s Last Stand.” Forced to retreat into Canada after this epic battle, Sitting Bull never gave up his fight. The last great united Sioux chief, Sitting Bull became the archetype of Native American resistance leaders.

Rachel Carson
Sometimes our professional duties allow us to champion ideals and beliefs that are beyond the scope of our employment. Rachel Carson did just that. An accomplished writer and biologist, Carson’s work opened a new perspective for concerned environmentalists on the term “ecology,” the study of our living place. It was her last book, Silent Spring, published in 1962, that awakened society to a broader responsibility to other forms of life. In it, Carson documented in minute biological detail the true menace to the ecosystem caused by harmful pesticides. This book sprouted the grassroots global environmental movement and led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.