FRED RICH

Today marks the end of Women’s Month 🪐

Looking back, I can say that this has been the one I have lived and experienced most consciously. And I’d like to close it with a story that unfolded in the beginning of August.

I was contacted by psychologist Dr. Jacqui von Cziffra-Bergs from the Solution Focused institute of South Africa, Johannesburg. She asked if she could use photographs of my coats in her presentation "Accessorize Yourself with Solution-Focused Ideas"—a talk about finding strength, inspiration, and resilience through what we choose to wear. Something that makes us feel powerful. This Women's Day talk was held at the GIBS Business School in Sandton, requested by the University of Pretoria.

I felt honored and grateful by her request and immediately confirmed. I thought to myself: if even a handful of these 300 women in the audience felt a spark of inspiration!

Reflecting on it, I also realized that those statements on my coats were never only meant for others. I wrote them to heal something inside myself, too. Creating these coats became a way of saving myself at a time when I needed it most. And I think that’s true for many artists: the message they put into the world is often the same one that once carried them through.

That’s why this request felt so important to me. These coats are connected to my own journey—and to see them reach others, perhaps even lifting them up, fills me with deep gratitude. My hope is that many women left that presentation inspired to claim their own words, their own statement, and perhaps carry it as the slogan in their lives.

Maybe that’s also why the punk scene spoke to me so strongly when I was younger. Punk has always belonged to the underdogs, the ones in the minority, the voices against injustice, against systems that crush people. That energy still fuels me. These empowering statements are reminders to keep going, to keep moving forward. Because not all of us are privileged enough to say we’ve had an easy life free of deep wounds.

And so, this feels like the perfect way to close this Women’s Month. Thank you! Now, I’m simply looking forward to spring in South Africa 🖤♻️