Watch out, Lilly Pulitzer, there is a new fashion trend on the block, and her name is Ella, Ivory Ella. College girls everywhere are going crazy for these shirts, but many do not know that by wearing the shirt, they are actually doing a service for elephants everywhere.
Ivory Ella is a company that is known for their frocket, or front pocket, shirts that come in a plethora of colors and their signature elephant imprint on the back and a small one on the pocket in the front. These stylish shirts have taken on a life of their own, but these shirts have a deeper meaning behind just looking cute. The company donates 10 percent of the profit made from the shirts to the Save The Elephant Foundation. Now most people at first, like myself, question why I should buy a shirt with an elephant to help save them. But then I read the IvoryElla.com about page and started to realize why this company was developed and what the true message was. On the website, it states that "less than 450,000 of these gentle giants are left in the wild due to excessive poaching," which is drastically low considering the website states that "in 1979 there were over a million elephants that roamed this earth."
An elephant's worth comes from its tusks, which the main reason why poachers hunt them, as stated on the Save The Elephants website. The ivory is then sold and turned into jewelry, which is the most common product made from the ivory. An elephant did not ask for their tusks. They were put on this earth with them for a purpose, and that purpose is to protect and defend themselves, not for jewelry. Their worth should come from what they do for this world and why it is important to have them in our ecosystem. They provide, in some places, transportation. With their diet, some things contain seeds and the elephants help transport seeds by spreading through their dung. There are so many more purposes behind their friendly face that helps this world run just a little more smoothly.
What I feel everyone in this generation needs to understand is that extinction is forever. Once we lose these animals, there is no going back. We will be teaching our children what these were, not taking them to a zoo or an aquarium to show them what they are. These shirts, although they look adorable, are trying to help give these animals a fighting chance. To help prevent the loss of yet another animal to the cruel word of extinction. The message that they are trying to convey with these shirts really means a lot and touched me when I realized what it was. I am an animal lover, and the fact that there are people out there willing to help an animal fight extinction is so admirable. I really was inspired by this company and cannot wait to buy my own Ivory Ella shirt. When you go on their website or find them on twitter, you see nothing but positive feedback and people who cannot wait to hit the street and show off their shirt. So I really want everyone to think long and hard about this question: Do we want future generations to learn about the size of an elephant through a textbook, or would we rather have them go and experience these animals, and so many more, up close and personal?
