Karen Millen to empower women to be their 'best selves'

London - Karen Millen has launched a new campaign in support of a female empowerment, bringing a new meaning to fashion for a cause. The high street fashion brand has teamed up with the Step Up Club, an advocate for female career development, for its new ‘Women Who Can Campaign.’

The movement sees Karen Millen working with a number of leading female entrepreneurs and roles models in its new digital and in-store campaign create to inspire, celebrate and champion women around the women. The Women Who Can campaign seeks to equip women with all the tools, knowledge and information needed to succeed and achieve their goals during their careers.

‘Our mission: To give you the confidence to be your best self’

“As a brand, we were thinking about confidence and how we can continue to instil this in our customers,” explains Francesca Johnson, Head of Global Marketing at Karen Millen to FashionUnited on where the inspiration to launch the campaign came from. “We were looking at how women’s roles are continually changing in society and saw that even though there are increased opportunities for women to empower themselves in their everyday lives, they also face new challenges. This really spurred us on to ask how we can inspire and support our customers.” After connecting the Step Up Club, the global apparel company felt that their expertise really aligned with their values and ideals, and the idea for the campaign was born, added Johnson.

Set to run for an initial six months, the new campaign uses a blend of video and editorial content, along with social interaction and in-store events to explore a wide range of themes linked to female empowerment. Each theme, which includes boosting your confidence and resilience, is set to be introduced by an interview with inspirational women from a number of sectors, including business, sports and tech. Sharmadean Reid, the founder of WAH nails, is the campaign inaugural speaker and will share her tips and tricks for unleashing your inner confidence, both in and out of the workplace. Other leading women set to be featured in The Women Who Can campaign include leading wealth manager and tech entrepreneur, Gemma Godfrey and the current British and World Kickboxing Association Atomweight Muay Thai boxing champion Ruqsana Begum.

“All of the women were very excited to join our campaign,” said Johnson. “They all recognised what we are hoping to achieve and were open to sharing their personal experiences with a wider audience through the campaign.” The new campaign is set to offer practical advice and take away sessions, such as how-to tips, playlists and motivational mantras, as well as coaching sessions with the Step Up Club’s career advisors in a number of selected Karen Millen stores. In addition, Karen Millen has also teamed up with the founders of the Step Up Club to create a curated edit of its collection. Items in the edit include a navy satin maxi-shirt dress, a contrast piping shirt and open-knit dress, all designed to function seamlessly in the workplace and out.

“It has always been our mission to make women feel confident through couture-inspired fashion,” said Beth Butterwick, CEO of Karen Millen on the new campaign. “Women Who Can sees us take this ambition a stage further, enabling KM women everywhere to draw inspiration from some of the UK’s most successful women who are trailblazers in their fields.” In honour of the new campaign launch, Karen Millen has also launched a competition. Interested participants are invited to share their motivational mantra for the chance to win a 2,000 pounds gift card and one-on-one coaching sessions with career experts at the Step Up Club.

“We hope to instil confidence in our customers by encouraging them to share their ambition and arming them with the best products possible to succeed in their daily lives,” added Johnson. Although the campaign is set to run for six months, following the incredibly positive response Karen Millen has seen, the brand is currently working out how they can continue to evolve the campaign. “We also aim to encourage our customers to share their own experiences, mantras and knowledge online with each, so they can continue to empower each other.

Photos: Courtesy of Karen Millen

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