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-NGOs, maison blanche has 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.

Apparel brand maison blanche is known as decidedly anti-fashion, stands for gender-non-conforming designs, ethically sourced materials, has fought for more diversity in the fashion industry and has been a strong voice for queer rights since the beginning. Yannik Zamboni, founder of maison blanche, sees fashion as a platform to spark change.

The goal was to make sure that every survivor knows that they should not wash their clothes right after being sexually assaulted to preserve as much DNA-evidence as possible. Ultimately, with this campaign, maison blanche set out to empower survivors with knowledge; and to give them the confidence to come forward to share their story and report the crime.

On a societal level, maison blanche set out to push the conversation around gender-based violence and the shockingly low number of convictions in sexualized crimes forward, to spark desperately needed systemic change.

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 In-ternational 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 aware of.

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

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

The back of the Tag linked to a hub that contained more information on where to get help as as a survivor, how to help as an ally, and offered the Tag as a downloadable file to other fashion brands, so that they could include it in their collection.

Data for research was collected with three partner-NGOs who also supported in terms of wording and messaging. The Sexualized Crime Unit of the Police Department Zurich, the Institute of Forensic Medicine and a DNA scientist served as experts that were consulted for this campaign.

Since maison blanche has both, a queer target audience and global reach, the target audiences for this campaign included very specifically (future) survivors, and very importantly: everyone.

Therefore, the approach was to place the Tags on a touchpoint that would be impossible to ignore by the individual and to then launch the Tags at an event that would be impossible to ignore by the international press. This way, we created maximum awareness, while reaching a really targeted audience.

– 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 not only about how to preserve evidence but on the lack of survivor justice, pushing the conversation further – from how a survivor can help themselves to how our society needs to change.

– Only 2 weeks after the launch, we reached 14 million media impressions and more fashion brands are adding the Tag to their collection.

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, and to stand tall as a community that is both so overaffected by sexualized crime, and yet so underrepresented in sexualized crime statistics.

The campaign reached 130’000 impressions on social media only 30 days after the launch and thus far garnered 14 million media impressions - an equivalent of 950’000 USD worth in media value. With zero media budget spent.

Not only has the media reported about how to preserve evidence as an individual, but also on the low numbers of convictions of sexual criminals – pushing the conversation around survivor’s justice further. To this day, media requests to report about the Tags Against Crime are coming in.

More and more fashion brands are including the Tag in their collection.