Follow
Register for free to receive Fr. Patrick Mary Briscoe’s My Daily Visitor newsletter and unlock full access to the latest inspirational stories, news commentary, and spiritual resources from Our Sunday Visitor.
Newsletter Magazine Subscription

Meet the founder of Life Dress, a pro-life apparel brand

Life Dress Life Dress
Courtesy of Angelique Claire Clark

Art can spark meaningful conversations about the dignity of human life and abortion, the founder of a pro-life apparel brand wants people to know.

“Art captures people’s attention in a way that nothing else can, and wearing art with thought-provoking messages and images can be the seed planted in someone’s mind,” Angelique Claire Clark, creator of Life Dress, told Our Sunday Visitor.

“It can be the reason why they ask, ‘What’s that? What does that mean?'” the 24-year-old from Las Vegas explained. “And now an opportunity is born to speak out for the preborn — to move a heart and change a mind.”

Life Dress mission
Courtesy of Angelique Claire Clark

This is why Clark began Life Dress, a nonprofit that seeks to end abortion by using the universal language of art to start conversations. To accomplish its mission, Life Dress sells apparel painted with pro-life art and messages.

All the proceeds from the dresses students paint in her workshops, Clark said, go to local pregnancy centers.

Shoppers can purchase everything from flowered shoes featuring the image of an unborn baby to a bright-yellow dress reading “empowered women empower women to choose life.”

Every item, Life Dress notes, is thrifted and hand-painted. The brand calls each creation “one-of-a-kind — just like every human life.”

When people encounter someone wearing Life Dress art, Clark hopes that they come away with an appreciation for life.

“There is beauty in humanity, humanity is worth protecting, and every person, born and preborn, should have the fundamental right to life,” she said of the message she wants viewers to see.

Life Dress
Courtesy of Angelique Claire Clark

The founding of Life Dress

Clark became passionate about the pro-life issue as a high school student after she chose abortion as a topic for her health class, she said.

“There was so much controversy surrounding it that I was desperate to understand how anyone could be in support of killing an innocent human being,” she explained. “I started doing a lot of research and became extremely convicted.”

After that, Clark tried to start a pro-life club at her school. When it was shut down, she fought back.

“After a year-long battle, involving national media coverage, I filed a lawsuit against my school district for infringing my First Amendment rights,” she remembered. “Three days later, I had my club.”

Clark now dedicates her life to ending abortion, which she calls “the greatest human rights injustice of our time.”

Life Dress
Courtesy of Angelique Claire Clark

Her inspiration for Life Dress came in 2018 when she attended a pregnancy center gala wearing a ball gown that she painted.

“[I] had this thought, ‘Why not wear what I stand for, in the most bold way possible?'” she recalled. “It turned heads. It raised eyebrows.”

The dress also attracted the attention of Clark’s mentor, Students for Life of America (SFLA) President Kristan Hawkins, she said. Clark still remembers Hawkins exclaiming, “I want one!”

“Soon, I had dozens of requests for hand-painted, pro-life dresses,” Clark added. “I built a website. I chose a name. Life Dress was born!”

Since then, she formally launched as a non-profit and travels the world teaching pro-life activism and apologetics after also developing a workshop where students paint Life Dresses.

Today, SFLA, which helped fund the expansion of Life Dress, partners with Clark’s nonprofit.

Life Dress
Courtesy of Angelique Claire Clark

A brand informed by faith

Clark, a Catholic, said that her faith impacts every facet of her life. She pointed to her experience in high school.

“When I was speaking on stages or [on] the news at 16 years old, God knew I needed these challenges in order to instill confidence,” she said. “He gave me the ability to speak boldly on this issue and to do so fearlessly.”

“Every time I hear, ‘you changed my mind’ or ‘I think I’ll reconsider my views,’ I owe all of the persuasion to the Holy Spirit,” she added.

Her faith shapes her conversations with abortion supporters, even if not explicitly, she revealed.

“I persuade using basic science, morality and philosophy,” she said. “Rather than using religion with someone who doesn’t believe, I use love so that they can know God by my actions and not just my words.”

Life Dress
Courtesy of Angelique Claire Clark

The making of an artist

Clark shared that God had a role in her formation as a painter.

“I have been an artist my entire life, but it was through what I believe to be divine intervention that I have found my way to painting,” she said.

At the same time she found inspiration for Life Dress, she landed a job at an art studio as a camp counselor, she said. The very next week, the studio asked her to serve as a painting instructor.

“I had always despised painting,” she said. “You would never catch me with a paintbrush. I drew, I did graphic design, I was a photographer, but I was not a painter.”

Still, she agreed.

“Through this God-send opportunity, I was pushed to teach painting classes and absolutely fell in love with the medium,” she said.

Life Dress
Courtesy of Angelique Claire Clark

A meaningful conversation

Clark shared a conversation sparked by Life Dress apparel. It began when she encountered March for Life counter-protesters a few years ago outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

“One of them saw my Life Dress and threw out an insult,” she said. “I chose to see that as an invitation.”

Clark remembered thanking the counter-protester and asking why she came. Her approach turned into a conversation.

“We entered a pretty in-depth conversation, where I had to find common ground, ask a lot of questions, and share information about everything from human development to abortion procedure types,” Clark said. “We crossed paths as ‘enemies’ but left as friends.”

“That experience,” she concluded, “helped motivate me to see the power of a hand-painted conversation-starter, and how it has a unique ability to give our message a platform everywhere we go.”