December officially marks the start of the annual fashion challenge and fundraiser, Dressember. Created in 2009 by Blythe Hill, Dressember challenges its advocates to wear dresses — or other formal wear like ties — every day of the month to spark conversations and encourage donations against human trafficking. Blythe Hill was inspired to create the Dressember movement to marry her passions of fashion and advocacy together. Collectively, Dressember has raised $20 million to fight human trafficking and aid survivors and their families.
Human trafficking is the illegal coercion of people to perform work that benefits a person or company. The U.S. Department of State recognizes two main types of human trafficking: forced labor and sex trafficking. Human trafficking is a multibillion-dollar industry and the second-largest criminal industry in the world, with drug trafficking being the first.
Dressember donations help the International Justice Mission (IJM) support trafficking victims and at-risk communities. IJM is a global organization that partners with local authorities in nineteen countries to fight human trafficking, slavery, violence against women and children and police abuse of power. Their mission specifically focuses on the protection of people in poverty.
“IJM’s mission is to protect people in poverty from violence by rescuing victims, bringing criminals to justice, restoring survivors to safety and strength, and helping local law enforcement build a safe future that lasts,” IJM states on their website.
Lily Bloch, a former Middleton High School (MHS) student and current University of Wisconsin-Madison student, has been participating in the fight against human trafficking with Dressember for over seven years.
“[Dressember is] a style challenge for a month and also an advocacy challenge… it’s advocacy with that creative element as well, and that’s something that has always really interested me… it’s an aspect I can use to have fun with something as well as use to promote a message,” Bloch said.
This year, Bloch has opted to focus on the role of women in human trafficking. To bring more awareness to this topic, she is compiling resources and writing short informational pieces on human trafficking and women, which are posted on her instagram, @whataboutmydress. Bloch explains why advocating about human trafficking and women is important, as well as some of the challenges this work entails.
“[Human trafficking is] something that’s so hidden and hard to talk about in a lot of contexts… It’s so hard for many people to realize because human trafficking is such an underground organization… and it’s so hard to track,” Bloch said. “My focus is specifically on women because [human trafficking] disproportionately affects women [and] women of color.”
Dressember benefits many people every year, but there are areas for improvement. Bloch wishes Dressember would include and represent a more diverse community of people.
“I don’t see people my age doing this stuff… I don’t see many young people represented in this movement and I feel like that’s an important focal point [for the future of Dressember],” Bloch said. “I also don’t see a lot of people of color; I think that there needs to be more done to represent those people in this journey and in this challenge.”
If you are interested in donating to Dressember this month, visit https://www.dressember.org/donate.
