This week, Mary Alice Stephenson’s nonprofit GLAM4GOOD is teaming up with UK-based jeweler Monica Vinader for a special event at its first US flagship in Soho. Anyone who pops in on Thursday from 7-9 can customize one of Vinader’s cult-favorite friendship bracelets with a personal mantra, and a portion of proceeds will help GLAM4GOOD in its quest to empower women nationwide. We caught up with Stephenson to get the scoop!
What makes Monica Vinader a great partner for GLAM4GOOD?
Any time a designer uses style and their platform to help raise awareness and wants to support GLAM4GOOD, it’s a powerful and important thing. It’s an honor to be picked as their first United States charitable partner. I love the jewelry—it’s chic and timeless. The quality is there. You can make it your own in the way you layer it, and I love the do-it-yourself aspect, that it’s not using somebody else’s words. In fashion right now, we’re seeing the appropriation of other people’s words everywhere, and they’re never credited. I love that someone can write their own message of empowerment, or they can write their own personal message to someone they care about and give it as a gift.
What message would you put on your Monica Vinader bracelet?
“Gratitude,” in all caps! What I most feel today is gratitude for those who are coming around to support GLAM4GOOD. I am not Bono. I’m not a supermodel. I didn’t sell a company. I am a single mom who’s done the best she can and had a great career. I could not have done it without the fashion community and the beauty community. As a young nonprofit, we need that support.
What has GLAM4GOOD been up to lately?
We’ve been able to do eight initiatives in the last six weeks. My team and I have worked with and empowered 100 young women under 40 battling breast cancer. Last Sunday, we were at an emergency domestic abuse shelter with 23 moms and over 40 kids, creating wardrobes. We just worked with 150 high school teens. We did an initiative for young women who were formerly incarcerated. We did a prom in Detroit for 100 kids battling life threatening illnesses. GLAM4GOOD could never have made such a tremendous impact without the help of everyone in the industry.
If you could gift a friendship bracelet to anyone, who’s first on the list?
Ariana Grande. It takes guts to have courage and to be fearless, even though you feel fear. She is GLAM4GOOD in my book. Her actions speak louder than any song does. I would love for her to learn more about GLAM4GOOD—so Ariana, if you’re listening!
Come by the Monica Vinader Flagship at 151 Spring Street on Thursday from 7 to 9 pm to customize a bracelet and support a good cause! RSVP at RSVP@Dailyfrontrow.com.
