Kenneth Cole and I have a strange relationship. I love his designs, and I love that he interprets the voice of the modern urban gay man through his clothing with wit, precision, and style. I also worship him for the way his pants make my ass look. Darted slacks, anyone? My stomach gets butterflies just thinking about ‘em. When I’m in need of a sharp new button down or the right pair of square toes to pair with my shiny purple polyester pants I know just where to go. But this is where it gets strange.

It always goes something like this: last month I was in New York City and had some time to kill as I was strolling past Rockefeller Center. To my delight I saw the Kenneth Cole store there and decided to take a browse. I walked in, shook off the snow, tried to decide if the leering once-over from the Greeter-Gay at the front door was flattering or creepy, and then realized the nagging conflict I have every time I walk into a Kenneth Cole store. In any given season, there are approximately 3.7 items from each of Kenny’s collections that I can wear successfully. Further, the time it takes to locate them, try them on, tuck, untuck, accessorize, pull the Chanel accessory trick, find the right shoe, pull 3 more colors of the shirt, spit-style my hair so I have an accurate depiction of what I’d look like fully geared in the outfit, and then veto it all except for the belt makes me cranky and hungry for chocolate-dipped pretzels. Don’t know why chocolate-dipped, but every time it’s chocolate-dipped. Dark chocolate, mind you. None of this Hershey’s weak-ass bullshit chocolate.

In this particular day in Rockefeller Center, however, I recognized the dilemma right away and just decided to browse; a browse that proved to be a very fateful browse, indeed. It was during this browse that I stumbled across my favorite new trend, and yet another reason why Kenneth Cole is destined for Sainthood. The Kenneth Cole aWEARness Campaign. Having regularly given massive sums of money to many different charities for years now, Ken Doll has decided to funnel all his donations through the aWEARness Campaign into two specific charities; amFAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research) and HelpUSA, a non-profit dedicated to helping the homeless become self-reliant. Driving the aWEARness fund is the line of aWEARness tee shirts. All basic black and gray tees with various smart, sharp political statements about AIDS, Global Warming, Same-Sex Marriage, Gun Violence, and the joy of seeing Bush leave office very soon, the aWEARness tees sell for $35 each and $10 of every tee sale goes directly to the fund. Since their debut the aWEARness line has been wildly successful and has channeled a ton of money into the fund.

When I saw this rack of shirts and realized what its purpose, I got a little teary-eyed. I know, a gay man weeping in Kenneth Cole. Nothing remarkable about that. But really, the heart and intention behind the aWEARness Campaign is remarkable and impossible to deny. It’s a very simple way to have a very strong voice. Plus the shirts are really cool and fit perfectly. Standing there in the store all dew-eyed I decided that aWEARness tees will be featured in the wardrobe for my next CD booklet and I can’t wait to slip ‘em on and let the shirts tell their stories.

It was enlivening to discover another way that Kenneth Cole is backing his shit up, is more than just charitable talk, and is making a material impact in AIDS research and homeless relief. Kenneth Cole has always been fiercely committed to the LGBT Community and he’s done more than the press has ever given him coverage for. He’s the real deal, he’s in it, and he’s so much more than great clothes.

Join me in joining the aWEARness Campaign.
Say thanks. Buy a shirt. Save lives.

Get aWEARness at www.kennethcole.com/awearness.

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