On April 29th, celebrities and LA personalities gathered at the GUESS headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles to commemorate the 16th Annual Denim Day presented by The Guess Foundation and Peace Over Violence. Denim Day Founder and Peace Over Violence Executive Director, Patti Giggans, took the stage and reminded all of us what happened 17 years ago that started this incredible cause.

The campaign was originally triggered by the unjust ruling made by the Italian Supreme Court in 1998, that overturned a rape conviction due to the victim wearing tight jeans. The following day, the women in the Italian Parliament came to work wearing jeans in solidarity with the victim. Patti said that they took “anger into action”, which is the goal of the campaign. The denim campaign is a stand against sexual assault and is educating all of us on this subject that some might find taboo.

A high moment of the conference was when Peace Over Violence’s Dani Williams-Jones stood up in front of hundreds of people to tell her story. Danny is a survivor of campus sexual assault, and got messages from the community that she should keep it “shush, shush, shush” (seen in picture above). Danny now helps victims through Peace Over Violence, and did not keep her story under wraps which shows that courage overcomes fear.

Other notable speakers that took the stage were: Chairman of the Board of GUESS? Inc. Maurice Marciano, Mayor Eric Garcetti, and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. Spokescouple Aloe Blacc and his wife Maya Jupiter performed onstage once the speeches were done.

Take A Stand and Wear Your Denim for #DenimDay on April 29th, 2015. About 5 million people across the globe pledged on the website to wear Denim on this day.

Watch Aloe Blacc Performance HERE