Fashion. Statement.

Smithies Create

Erika Ewing standing in front of a black power fist assembled from a covid-19 wordcloud. She is wearing a shirt with the same image.

BY CHRISTINA BARBER-JUST

Published July 17, 2020

The name of Erika Ewing ’93’s social-impact fashion brand, Got To Stop, lends itself to endless causes: Discrimination has got to stop. Poverty has got to stop. Racism has got to stop. Prejudice, oppression, inequity: They’ve all got to stop. And now the spread of COVID-19 has got to stop, too.

Ewing launched Got To Stop’s COVID-19 campaign in March with a line of face masks, tote bags and clothing items featuring her original designs promoting hand washing and social distancing. When it became clear that the coronavirus was disproportionately affecting Black and brown communities, she created the raised-fist design shown here, which she suggests wearing “in solidarity against racial disparities and inequity in the health care system throughout the world.”

Black mask with covid-19 fist word cloud design.

This story appears as part of the Smithies Create column in the Summer 2020 issue of the Smith Alumnae Quarterly.

Photographs by Peggy Toones