New pro-life clothing brand offers alternative to companies that support Planned Parenthood

By Samuel Smith, Deputy Managing Editor Wednesday, January 16, 2019

A new clothing line was launched this month that aims to be a social conservative, pro-family and pro-life alternative to major brands that support abortion, homosexuality or other left-leaning causes.

The Philadelphia-based COL1972 (short for Culture of Life 1972) was launched earlier this month by conservative homeschool mother and children’s book author Carla D'Addesi and her three daughters, just in time for the 2019 March for Life in Washington, D.C.

Currently selling items like sweatshirts, t-shirts, knit hats, baseball caps, leggings and travel bags, the startup brand aims to expand over time to offer deep lines of men and women’s clothing, as well as clothing for babies and accessories for dogs.

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The new brand vows to give 10 percent of its proceeds to organizations that work to protect a “culture of life.”

“There is a fashion war going on,” D’Addesi told The Christian Post. “Families like mine who are conservative feel like we have been marginalized and there is not a place for us in the fashion world because we have not been able to support with our purchasing power brands that are anti-American.”

D’Addesi, who is also a conservative columnist and radio host, explained that her family is big into boycotting companies and corporations that have violated the moral principles of her family.

Whether they won’t shop in Target because of the organization’s transgender bathroom policy or refuse to buy Nike clothing because of its advertising with former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, the number of companies that her family can in good conscience purchase from is decreasing.

“We do not support organizations that turn around and give money to Planned Parenthood, any anti-family organizations,” stated D’Addesi.  

A number of clothing companies support the nation's largest abortion provider as sponsors. Those include Nike, Macy's, Levi Straus, Dockers, Converse. Companies like J. Crew, Hollister and Gucci support pro-LGBT organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign or GLESN. 

“My kids said to me a couple of years ago as we saw another brand fall because of donations that went against our family principles, they said, ‘Mom you are going to have to start sewing,'" D'Addesi recalled. 

Instead of picking up a sewing machine, D’Addesi and her kids tossed around the idea of launching their own brand. D’Addessi and her three daughters came up with a business plan and did some research. They found that approximately 9 million teens, tweens and millennial girls identify as “pro-life” in the U.S.

“We saw that there are 9 million young women out there that feel the same way as my daughters. It would be amazing if we created this life tribe, posse and community that points everyone to supporting life,” said D’Addesi. “There is a gap in the fashion industry for conservative women and we want to fill that gap.”

D’Addesi referred to it as a need for “guilt-free shopping.”

About a year later with the support of paid consultants and a Los Angeles-based pro-life clothing designer, the company’s online store opened for business on Jan. 1.

“[The designer] helps us design the blacks and the golds and the army greens and the camo pants and camo hats that are popular right now with the young kids,” D’Addesi explained. “This is not your little church brand. We are telling people that we are hoping to be the Chick-fil-a of fashion.”

According to D’Addesi, the 1972 in “COL 1972” is meant to honor the last year that a “culture of life was celebrated in the United States.” In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to make abortion a national right in the case of Roe v. Wade.

All of Col 1972’s products are produced in the U.S. D’Addesi rented a warehouse to serve as a fulfillment center and hold the thousands of pieces of clothing that has been produced.

Models for the company’s website and social media pages are not going to be shown in promiscuous poses. 

“You are not going to see two boys together or two girls together,” she said. “You are not going to see a boy dressed in girls clothes or a girl dressed in boys clothes. We celebrate women for being women and men for being men.”

COL 1972 is one of the organizations sponsoring the 2019 March for Life in Washington, D.C. on Friday.  Additionally, it will be a sponsor of the Students for Life 2019 National Conference that will take place on Saturday.

D’Addesi is scheduled to speak at the Students for Life conference.

COL 1972 is also sponsoring a bus that will take about 56 people from a local church in the Philadelphia area to attend the March for Life.