The Louise Xin Foundation

The Louise Xin Foundation was established with a vision to create a sanctuary for artists to use their craft for meaningful purposes. By supporting artists and promoting cultural exchange, the foundation aims to bridge divides and champion human rights. These aims can be furthered through various projects in culture, fashion, and art. As well as through awards for individual creators and grants to grassroots organizations, NGOs, or similar entities working with humanitarian causes. The Louise Xin fashion house serves as a window for the foundation, operates outside the profit-driven traditional fashion system. Creating limited-edition fashion collections through collaborations with artists and cross-sector partners. The primary goal of the fashion house is to generate long-term financial support of the foundation’s work.

"My dream has always been to build a fashion house, and just as in building a physical house, a stable foundation comes first. I want this foundation to be a safe space for people to come together and use our passion to serve our society. The only constant thing is change. Growth is important but it doesn’t have to be in endless spending of financial, natural, and human resources. And it definitively shouldn’t be at the cost of our environment and human lives. I look forward to creating our own world, where we can together thrive towards achieving limitless growth in art, culture, and education.” - Louise Xin (Founder)

Born in China into an artistic and academic family, Louise Xin is the granddaughter of generational landlords, bankers and the daughter of a classical painter who endured significant tragedies and losses during the Cultural Revolution. From a very young age, Louise harbored a passion for art and a strong urge to fight against injustice. Growing up in humble conditions, supported by social welfare and raised by a single mother in Sweden, she experienced a difficult upbringing, battling mental health challenges and a sense of not belonging. Her multicultural and contrasting background fuelled her drive to create understanding between people, making it her life’s purpose. Shortly after founding Scandinavia’s first rental-only couture brand to promote sustainable consumer behaviour, Louise Xin turned to human rights advocacy upon discovering the issue of Uyghur forced labour. Her 2021 debut fashion show, dedicated to human rights, catapulted her to international recognition as a prominent voice against forced labour, child labour, and modern slavery in the fashion industry. Her accolades include numerous awards and nominations, and she was honoured as a Sakharov Fellow by the European Parliament. In March 2023 she made history by hosting the firstever fashion show inside the European Parliament to highlight forced labour in the fashion industry.

Since then Xin has travelled the world as a keynote speaker at prominent events such as the UN, TEDx, Human Rights Watch, and the Human Rights Foundation, and has collaborated with the Royal Opera. Her work has been showcased in museums and art galleries and featured in over 100 magazines, including Vogue, ELLE, Vanity Fair, and Harper’s Bazaar, in more than 14 languages worldwide, as well as on radio, podcasts, and television. Witnessing the devastation caused by genocide and modern slavery while constantly navigating between the worlds of fashion, politics, and human rights, she became determined to promote empathy and understanding among people from different backgrounds. She believed that showcasing the beauty and richness of various cultures could help bridge divides and foster a sense of global citizenship, including through educational initiatives, art, and humanitarian projects.

To unite people, create understanding, and provide a safe space for artists and creatives to use creativity for a purpose, the Louise Xin Foundation was born.