Every 1 in 5 women experience sexual violence in their lifetime. Members of the queer community are even more at risk. While sexualized crime is a crisis that affects the whole world, it is women and the LGBTQIA+ community especially, who suffer from sexual attacks, a lack of empathy and a lack of justice.

Together with partner-NGO Frauenhäuser Schweiz und Liechtenstein, maison blanche set out to fight for more survivor justice. While changing the rampant sexism in the justice and legal system would need a real systemic paradigm shift, maison blanche has not only spread crucial information on how to preserve DNA-evidence with Tags Against Crime but has also caused a real disruption in the fashion world and sparked a big conversation about the lack of survivor justice in media outlets worldwide.

International statics state that 97% of all rapists walk away without a conviction. Every 1 in 5 women experience sexual violence in their lifetime. Members of the queer community are even more at risk. Yet, the number of unreported cases is staggering. In Switzerland, Amnesty International just recently found that 58% of survivors of sexual assault never report the crime for fear of not being taken seriously.

Zero to low awareness on how to react, act and where to get help after being sexually assaulted and a systemic lack of survivor justice are the realities that people need to be made more aware of.

Supporting partner «Dachverband Frauenhäuser Schweiz und Liechtenstein» (DAO) (Women’s Shelter Switzerland and Liechtenstein) is the country’s leading NGO when it comes to offering survivors a safe space in times of desperate need. But not just that, the DAO continues to raise awareness and push the conversation around gender-based violence forward.

Apparel brand maison blanche is known as decidedly anti-fashion and decidedly pro- queer and feminist rights. It stands for morally sourced, gender-non-conforming clothes; fights for diversity and queer rights and uses fashion as a platform to spark change.

By adding an anti-laundry-tag that informs survivors to not wash their clothes after an attack in order to preserve DNA-evidence, maison blanche has translated their purpose into a tangible piece of work that not only reached the individual through a most striking touchpoint (the laundry tag), but the international community as well.

International statics state that 97% of all rapists walk away without a conviction. Every 1 in 5 women experience sexual violence in their lifetime. Members of the queer community are even more at risk. Yet, the number of unreported cases is staggering. In Switzerland, Amnesty International just recently found that 58% of survivors of sexual assault never report the crime for fear of not being taken seriously. 

Zero to low awareness on how to react, act and where to get help after being sexually assaulted and a systemic lack of survivor justice are the realities that people need to be made more aware of, this work aims to do exactly: to push the conversation around survivor justice forward.

«Do not wash if you’ve been sexually assaulted. » maison blanche placed these laundry instructions on a small yet powerful touchpoint: as anti-laundry-tags in clothing – thereby inventing the Tags Against Crime.

The Tags Against Crime will remind survivors of sexual assault to not wash their clothes to preserve DNA-evidence of the perpetrator.

The back of the Tag linked to a hub that contained more information for survivors and allies alike and offered the Tag as downloadable file to other fashion brands, so that they could include it in their collection.

While sexualized crime is a crisis that affects the whole world, it is women and the queer community especially, who suffer from sexual attacks, a lack of empathy and a lack of justice. As a non-gender-conforming international fashion brand, maison blanche has both: a queer target audience and global reach.

The approach was to place the DNA-preserving laundry instructions on a touchpoint that would be impossible to ignore by the individual (on laundry tags); then place the tags in a collection that would be impossible to ignore by the LGBTQIA+ community (maison blanche costumers); and to then launch the collection at an event that would be impossible to ignore by the international press and community (at the New York Fashion Week) – to create maximum awareness.

The Tags Against Crime were sewn into maison blanche’s DNA-inspired collection and launched at the New York Fashion Week to a global audience and the international press.

The tags linked to a website that contained more information: where to get help as survivors and how to support as allies. Partner NGOs offered additional support.

A downloadable tag was made available so that other brands could include it in their collections.

On Instagram, we posted facts and mobilized the community to spread awareness.

The press reported broadly about the anti-laundry tag and created awareness around the lack of survivor justice.

Only 2 weeks after the launch, we reached 14 millions media impressions and more internationally renowned fashion labels continue to reach out to include the anti-laundry-tags in their collections, to help push the conversation further.

maison blanche translated their brand purpose into a tangible campaign with Tags Against Crime.

A most diverse set of models stood on a global stage to represent the DNA-collection to stand tall as a community that is both “over-affected” by sexualized crime, yet underrepresented in sexualized crime statistics.

The campaign reached 14 million media impressions, which is an equivalent of 1.5M USD in earned media. With zero media budget spent.

To this day, media requests to report about the Tags Against Crime are coming in and more and more fashion brands are including the Tag in their collection.

The work aims to reach more and more fashion brands and create real momentum to one day have the anti-laundry-tag be included in a big, global fashion brands, so that the conversation around survivor justice reaches an even bigger, global scale.