Jessi Cruickshank is selling off the contents of her closet for This Is My Dress(mtv.ca/mydress), an auction the After Show co-host hopes will raise $8,500 to build a school in Kenya for the youth-helping-youth organization Free The Children (freethechildren.com). Bidding starts today on a cache of dresses that includes pieces from Canadian designers, a few international heavy-hitters and some sweet vintage finds. (There are even frocks from the wardrobes of Hills cast members.)
After the jump, we check out some of the dresses and chat with Cruickshank about living in a mud hut, Lauren Conrad’s contribution and what she wore when Brody Jenner sat in her lap.
How did the auction come about?
“I’m an ambassador for Free The Children, a youth-run organization that encourages youth to get involved and work to create change for other youth in communities in the developing world. Their big thing is to encourage young people to turn their passions into a way to raise awareness or to create change for people your age who really need it. So I started to think: What am I good at? What can I contribute? Funnily enough, of all the ridiculous things I’ve said and done on television, the thing that always gets the most feedback is what I am wearing, so I figured why not take my most precious clothing items and auction them off to viewers at home?”
You recently went to Kenya, what was that like?
“They called and said, we want to send you to live in a mud hut with a traditional Masai family in rural Kenya—no running water, no showers, no makeup. I was there living with this family for 10 days and it was so unbelievable. I came back thinking, okay, I have to do something. What can I do to create change in the community I just called my home?”
Why do you want to build a school?
“Free The Children starts all of their work in education, especially with young girls. The cycle of poverty starts with education. When I was in Kenya, I slept in a mud hut probably the size of my washroom here at home, with seven children in the hut with me. So these kids became my friends and my confidants and I got to know each and every one of them. So doing something that will help their generation, and future generations like them, was really what I wanted to do.”
When you approached the cast members of The Hills to contribute, what was their reaction?
“I was so nervous, to be honest with you. I have never really known them to be heavily involved in charity work so I didn’t know if they would be into it. I sent them information about Free The Children and they all jumped on board so quickly, it was really the most surprising part of this whole process. I thought I would never hear back from them but each and every one of them was not only into doing it, but each had a dress in the mail to me within the week.”
Which of your dresses holds the most memories for you?
“My first ever designer dress was this Greta Constantine dress that I am auctioning off. It was so exciting; they came over to my work and fitted me personally. It was for our first big Hills finale, and Brody Jenner sat on my lap in the middle of the show. That was a big moment, so that dress holds a lot of memories for me. I also have a gorgeous vintage Dolce & Gabbana dress, very sort of Sex and the City in the ’90s. I found it the day before I was leaving for the MTV Movie Awards. I had a dress all ready to go, and I happened to be walking by The Paper Bag Princess and saw this dress in the window, and ended up wearing it. That was one of my favourite lucky finds, that one I am going to have a hard time parting with.”
Which dress do you think will get the most bids?
“I think people are going to lose their minds a little bit over Lauren Conrad’s dress from her collection–she wore it to the MTV Movie Awards. I was there with her and she was in the middle of a huge feud with Audrina, so it was one of the most awkward after-party experiences—Audrina is on one side, Lauren is on the other, and I was kind of trapped in the middle. From my dresses, I have this amazing Mikhael Kale dress that he custom-made for me while he was making a custom dress for Beyoncé. It’s absolutely stunning. I wore it to The Hills finale in New York last year. It’s so ornate—he was working on it until five in the morning when I was leaving at 7 a.m. the next day.”
Will you go back to Kenya to see the school?
“I would love to. Right now, I am just crossing my fingers that we make enough money for the school. That is my priority right now. I put my heart and my soul into this auction so I just want it to be successful.”LINK....
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