The fashion industry has a reputation for being artificial and cold-hearted. There are heartless editor-in-chiefs, skin and bone models and an emphasis on the outer person.

The fashion world appears to be materialistic. However, there is a sunshine in all of these clouds. Recently there has been a huge movement in the industry towards charitable giving. I think this effort is absolutely brilliant. The fashion industry is huge. It affects our everyday lives through magazines, advertisements and even the clothes we wear, and most of the time we don’t even realize it. Fashion is a living and breathing art. So, why not use this all-powerful presence to do a little good for people who need it?

The first brand giving back through charity that most of us heard of was Tom's shoes. These funky shaped shoes, with their "one for one" cause, were a huge hit a few years back and continue to be so. Tom's says, “We’re in business to change lives.” What a wonderful business to be in. For every pair bought, one pair is donated to a person in need in one of the 60 countries Tom's provides to. They have donated at least 10 million shoes over the past seven years. In our lifetime, I think Tom's is the forerunner in the charitable sector of the fashion world.

Recently, stacked beaded bracelets have been dominating girls' wrists across the nation. These glass-beaded bracelets are of the Lily and Laura brand. The colorful bracelets are sold at boutiques and retail stores. Each bracelet is handmade and designed by Laura and women in Nepal. The business focuses on paying more than fair trade wages to these women to improve the quality of their lives. Each bracelet is completely unique and different. They come in many different colors and go with just about any outfit. Not only are these bracelets trendy, they help create a livelihood for women in Nepal. This is the type of fashion we need more of. Young adults love these bracelets, as they should.

How about Lauren Bush’s FEED products? In 2006, the FEED brand took off as Bush designed a bag for the United Nations School feeding program. Beginning as a burlap cotton bag, the brand now includes bags, t-shirts and accessories. The bags are sold at high-end retail stores as well as a lower end brand for the Target stores. Each bag sold feeds one child for a year. Since the company has started, FEED has provided for 60 million school meals to children around the world. FEED believes “everyone has the right to human necessities.” The FEED line is always very fashion forward and celebrities such as Reese Witherspoon sport them all the time. FEED is just another of many fashion lines with a wonderful cause.

There are so many more fashion brands than the ones mentioned above. Fashion will always be primarily about the outside. That’s just a basic fact. But before we are quick to associate shallowness with the fashion industry, we must look to these companies who are putting their power to a great cause.  The trend for fashion lines to have charitable foundations is rapidly growing, so I think it’s best that we applaud and support the lines that are doing so. The devil doesn’t always wear Prada.