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Designer Notes

VOTE 2020

VOTE

Eleanor votes in one of the first elections in which women had the right to vote. New York, November 3, 1936. Photograph courtesy FDR Library.
Eleanor Roosevelt votes in one of the first elections in which women had the right to vote. New York, November 3, 1936. Photograph courtesy FDR Library.

A Personal Note from Cynthia

This is a reminder to all of our clients in the United States: if you haven’t done so already in early voting, remember to vote on November 3rd.


Eleanor Roosevelt, along with her friends, worked very hard a hundred years ago so that women could have the vote in the United States. They have passed the torch on to us to make certain EVERYONE is treated with respect and equality.

Cynthia Ivey Abitz stands in line to vote in 2020.
Cynthia stands in line to vote during the pandemic, 100 years after the 19th amendment gave women the right to vote in the United States. New York, October 30, 2020. Photograph courtesy Josh Ivey Abitz.

I thought about Eleanor a lot as Josh and I stood in line together, waiting to vote in the rain and unusual autumn snow squalls yesterday here in New York. For the hour and forty minutes we were in line, there was a sense of reverence from the people waiting. Everyone was masked for the pandemic, respectful and kind while exercising their civic duty. It made me hopeful that a world can continue that honours civility and kindness—one that Eleanor reminds us will only happen if we make it so.

She once wrote, “It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.”

An important part of the work is voting, so please remember to vote.

If you plan to wear your Ivey Abitz garments when you vote, please send us photographs of you in action. We’d love to see images of solidarity and hope as we exercise our right to vote.

— Cynthia Ivey Abitz