Bio:
Cortney Renee moved to NYC to attend The King’s College where she studied Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. Her pursuit of modeling and acting provided appearances in Brides magazine and feature films and TV shows including How To Lose Friends and Alienate People, August, and Gossip Girl. Her passion for justice inspired involvement in the 2009 launch of Stop Child Trafficking Now. Her love for fashion and philanthropy birthed a brand which aims to promote ethical fashion. She currently resides in NYC where she endeavors to bring light to designers making a difference! Her long term hope is to inspire the fashion industry to make a creative and engaging world contribution. Her personal mission is to reflect true beauty, and her definition of “true beauty” is one that “come from a heart that lives to give back”. So she endeavors to reflect that in all things, both professionally and personally.
Company Background:
In 2010, Cortney decided to build a bridge between her two passions, fashion and philanthropy. She had been in the fashion industry as a model and actress, since moving to NY in 2004 and she wanted to employ the influence and creativity of the fashion industry to make a difference in our world, on both a national and international scale. She began a fashion blog, wherein she covered philanthropic fashion brands (brands that have a give back built into their business model and fund a partner NGO or an internal NGO). In her research and networking she learned of ingenious social entrepreneurs pioneering new territory, and she realized they were on the cutting edge of social enterprise by employing fashion as a tool to effect global change. Her mission continued to evolve and grow, and she began to offer professional modeling services to these start-ups and her fashion industry insight to help them enter the mainstream.
Now, a year later, Cortney is hosting her 2nd evening of philanthropic fashion where we celebrate brands making a difference. She has professional models (many of them her friends) act as spokes models for the evening. Their first event, “Share the Love: An Evening of Philanthropic Fashion” saw 1,000 inspired and thrilled New Yorkers, and was a huge success. Their next event, “Hampton’s Summer Preview Party: An Evening of Philanthropic Fashion” will be held May 23rd, 2011. The company’s major fashion sponsors include Peace Love World, Same Sky, Native Honey, and their non-profit partners include the Somaly Mam Foundation and Print4Change/Healing Haiti, and their corporate sponsors include the Body Shop, Equinox, and many more. Cortney has also begun to offer fashion film production to brands to build their brand image online and give them new inventive ways to reach their target demographic. She looks forward to seeing this division grow.
