Fashion Targets Breast Cancer® (FTBC), a charitable initiative of the CFDA/CFDA Foundation, marshals the goodwill and services of every element of the fashion industry (including fashion designers in the U.S. and internationally, leading retailers, the world’s most famous models and celebrities, fashion photographers, as well as media, advertising, and PR firms, among others) to raise public awareness and funds for the breast cancer cause, in the U.S. and internationally.
The Fashion Targets Breast Cancer name and symbol were created by Ralph Lauren and subsequently entrusted to the CFDA Foundation. FTBC was first presented in the U.S. in the spring of 1994 during New York Fashion Week, and was formally launched in September 1994 at a special White House reception hosted by then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. During this initial campaign, 400,000 FTBC shirts were sold, raising $2 million to benefit the Nina Hyde Center for Breast Health at the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical Center. This center was chosen as beneficiary at Ralph Lauren’s request, in memory of his friend Nina Hyde, the former fashion editor of The Washington Post, who died of breast cancer in 1990.
To date, nearly $50 million has been granted to breast cancer charities worldwide from FTBC campaigns. CFDA Members have designed special FTBC branded or inspired merchandise, which was either sold or auctioned over the course of the campaign.
