Chicago Tribune - September 24, 2006
Kelly Haramis, Tribune staff reporter, kharamis@tribune.com

After all, Edun's team--Rogan Gregory, Ali Hewson and husband Bono--hit Nordstrom, 55 E. Grand Ave., mere hours after their New York show to launch the One T-shirt, from which $10 of each shirt sold is donated to the Apparel Lesotho Alliance to Fight AIDS Fund, to provide education and medicines for factory workers and their families in the African country of Lesotho.

"I'm not much of a garmento," the rock star joked, despite his hip bluish-gray jacket and signature sunglasses. Style has never been lost on this man, but substance is the direct message.

"People [are] dying for no good reason . . . dying for lack of drugs that we can get at any corner store. That's unacceptable," Bono said.

U2's Bono may be the celebrity voice, but the twin hearts, Hewson and Gregory, spoke passionately about Edun--and the One campaign--in the Conrad Chicago hotel's presidential suite just before the public event.

Gregory, whom Bono called "the best new designer in America," celebrates the fact that the One shirt is made by workers in Lesotho and that 25 percent of each shirt's sale goes back to the community. "I like the idea [that the clothing involves a] broad spectrum of people."

Hewson agreed, emphasizing that food and medicine are needed now. Gregory said he was saddened to learn that the average life span for a person in Lesotho is 36. "I'd be dead in a few years," he said. Hewson added, "I'd already be dead."

Hewson, sporting a black One shirt and a black pinstriped, fitted jacket, comes across more like an old friend than a rock star's wife.

These shirts, she said, help "provide for their families and [give] back dignity" to the residents of Lesotho.

She said One's goal is to reach 5 million members by 2008.

Bono echoed this at the Nordstrom event: "We are going to be the NRA for the world's poor." (At 2.4 million, One is gaining on the well-established gun organization's 3 million members.)

One person Bono doesn't have to convince is Shayne Moore of Wheaton. Moore, a mother of three, first heard Bono speak at Wheaton College in 2002. She said that at the time she was "happy with my Starbucks and my Target runs," but she soon became involved with the One campaign, attending two Group of 8 summits, which involve leaders of the world's industrial nations.

Moore met Bono for the first time last Saturday. Was she even a bit star struck? "Bono is fun, but he's just sort of the front of the train and there are so many cars behind it."

Add children to that train, because next on Edun and One's agenda are One shirts for kids, said Hewson.

Perhaps Bono can persuade Shiloh Jolie-Pitt to be the face of the baby line. As Bono knows, celebrity endorsements never hurt.

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