Last year I took part in Dressember: for 31 days I was wearing a dress and, more importantly, I was drawing a dress daily and so collecting donations. It was great, I had the chance to e-meet a lot of fantastic people and, thanks to all of them, raised more than $800 for the cause against women trafficking.

It flatters me that some of you, who followed my Dressember last year and generously donated, are asking me now if I am participating this year too. I will, but it won't be in the same way as last year. I don't have the capacities to repeat last year's campaign.

As much as I loved to do it, it was really demanding. The reactions to the drawings were overwhelming, that kept me going. But there were a lot of days when I got up at five in the morning and even earlier to be able to make the daily drawing, upload it, create the different variations (print, digital, PC-background, mobile screensaver) and send them to the donor, update the donations page and my blog... oh, and do my regular work for my clients. It kept me awake till late in the night. All this during the crazy pre-Christmas and Christmas time, including travelling to my family in Spain.

But it does not have to be as complicated as I did it last year. So if you feel tempted to create your own campaign: by any means, yes, do it! It is so easy to create a donations web site and you can just let every body know about it and encourage them to donate every time they ask why you are not wearing trousers any more. It will be great, you will see!

As for me, starting tomorrow I will:

  • Wear a dress every day of December
  • Post the drawing of a dress daily on my Instagram account
  • Spread the word about Dressember sharing donations accounts, created by other women, where you can contribute if you want so. So, if you have your own donation site, let me know and I will tell about it when I post my drawing.

Stay tuned on Instagram if you want to see some dresses and are interested in fighting human trafficking.

Virginia Romo

Fashion and style illustrator based in Germany, working everywhere. Clients: Dior Parfums, Chanel, Hugo Boss, Guerlain, L’Oréal Paris, Maybelline, Lillet

www.virginiaromo.com
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Month's faves - November 2016

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Testing the Illustration paper of Hahnemühle