Sarah Guirguis In celebration of National Women’s History Month, a new campaign inspired by the iconic Rosie the Riveter was launched to honor the major strides women have made in the workforce over the past seventy-five years. Using denim from the original forties’ era, Cotton Incorporated joined forces with designers Emily Current and Meritt Elliott to create modern-day ‘Rosie Reborn’ jumpsuits.
“Authentic cotton denim has been a uniform of sorts throughout history: the original osies during World War II, the rock-and-roll rebellion of the 1960s and casual Friday takeover in the ’90s. Denim has empowered women in the workforce for decades and with the modern interpretation of the Rosie jumpsuit, we want women to channel that fearless determination,” said Kim Kitchings, senior vice president of Consumer Marketing at Cotton Incorporated.
“We have looked to both history and vintage as inspiration since the beginning of our journey in fashion and our designs are thoughtful reinterpretations of classic American silhouettes in soft, washable cottons. For this project, we deconstructed an original ‘Rosie’ vintage denim jumpsuit and reimagined it to reflect a Rosie of today – creating a one-of-a-kind prototype for The Rosie jumpsuit,” said Emily Current and Meritt Elliott, co-founders of THE GREAT.
Marking the unbeatable spirit of these women, the Rosie Reborn campaign highlights six modern-day Rosies who break boundaries in their often male-dominated fields: founders of THE GREAT., Emily Current and Meritt Elliott, professional soccer athlete and World Cup Champion, Carli Lloyd, famed metal artist/welder, Barbie the Welder, founder of Black Girls Code, Kimberly Bryant, and finally, architecture thought-leader, Julia Gamolina.
With the tagline “Cotton Makes Denim Strong. You Make It Powerful”, the campaign film is directed by Kat Keene who drew the main graphic inspiration from the World War II-era recruitment posters.
