If a Famous Fashion Designer Yells in Times Square, Does Anybody Hear Him?

A self-professed “reasonably successful, designer, businessman, parent, and philanthropist but … frustrated activist,” Kenneth Cole today went public with the AWEARNESS Blog, “the perfect venue for personal expression and for encouraging genuine change.” Cole — or his ghostwriter — is posting himself, but he’s also enlisted about a dozen writers, photographers, and filmmakers, and one talented musician in KT Tunstall, to join him in the effort.

Obviously, I’m all for blogging, but I’m not sure that mere “venting” — his word, not mine — is the way to effect the kind of change that Cole envisions. He chairs the Foundation for AIDS Research, so he clearly knows the value of nonprofit contributions. I’d suggest that if Cole really wants to do something about social rights, well-being, the political landscape, and hard times — AWEARNESS’s targets — he leave the vanity projects to others and devote more of his time to philanthropic efforts.