MILAN — The Italian Chamber of Fashion’s sole black designer pulled out of this month’s Milan Fashion Week on Wednesday, citing a lack of focus on diversity after the chamber “abandoned” a program promoting young designers of color working in Italy. and inclusive support.
Stella Jean interrupted a press conference at the Italian National Chamber of Fashion to announce that neither she nor five members of the We Are Made in Italy collective of color designers will be attending Fashion Week.
She also said she began the hunger strike on Wednesday out of concern for members of WAMI, an initiative launched in 2020 in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, and that her activism could face professional backlash.
The moves mark the dramatic end to a nearly three-year partnership with the chamber to promote designers of colour.
“The Chamber of Commerce told us, ‘We don’t know of any Italian designers who are not white.’ We brought them on the runway. They supported us for two years. Then we were thrown out,” Jean told a news conference. .
Carlo Capasa, president of the Italian Chamber of Fashion, assured her from the podium that the chamber had no intention of retaliating in any way. He expressed regret that neither she nor the WAMI members attended Fashion Week.
“Stella’s contribution has always been appreciated. We Italians need a prick of conscience,” he said. “As for WAMI, we are not one to take revenge. It is important for us to promote new brands.”
He noted that two WAMI designers from previous seasons presented collections during Milan Fashion Week, which runs from February 21 to 27.
In addition, the chamber included the inaugural Black Carpet Awards on the Fashion Week schedule, honoring the achievements of minorities in Italian society, and hosted another diversity event, initiated by Tenesia Carr, owner and editor of American magazine Blanc. initiative.
After Jean gave an impassioned speech at a fashion show last September about the personal toll she had paid to highlight racial injustice in Italy, Joan accused the chamber of slashing its support for WAMI.
She also said it reneges on a promise to create a blackboard in the Senate to promote diversity and inclusion. Capasa told The Associated Press he decided against the board after WAMI’s social media posts negatively affected some Italian fashion brands.
“We wrote a very good letter saying we want to give them the freedom to express themselves,” Capasa said, adding that the chamber cannot host any board that appears to be publicly bashing other members.
Italian-Haitian Jean, who made her Milan runway debut in 2013 at an Armani show, says she and her family have faced reprisals for their active advocacy for racial justice in Italy. That included death threats against her daughter from other minors, as well as terminating her professional relationship, she said.
“When you talk about reprisals, death threats, people, I work in fashion. I don’t sell weapons, I don’t sell drugs or make money from trafficking women,” Jen said. “It’s ridiculous, despicable, disgraceful and inhumane and I have to speak for people who feel their lives are in danger and who feel they will suffer the same retaliation.”
WAMI was launched by Jean, African-American designer Edward Buchanan and Michelle Ngonmo, head of Afro Fashion Week Milano, to draw attention to the lack of minority representation in Italian fashion. It comes after a number of racial gaffes by major fashion houses grabbed global headlines.
Ngonmo told The Associated Press that the chamber’s financial support for the project has dwindled in the three years it has been running so far, and that Milan Africa Fashion Week has been unable to come up with the 20,000 euros ($21,000) to support the five young designers in making a solid When looking, add a video.
Ngonmo and Jean said the Italian fashion chamber fully supported the collections of the two WAMI classes, each with five designers, but did not fund the third generation.
The September show featuring Jean, Buchanan and WAMI was funded by other allies and their own donations. The latest WAMI collection will be showcased via video on February 22nd.
“Maybe the message is that the industry as a whole needs to open its eyes and say, ‘What can we do to make this happen?'” Ngonmo told The Associated Press.
Capasa stresses that Blanc Magazine’s Carr’s project has received the same support he provided for WAMI: a spot on the calendar and a physical space at the fashion center where journalists and buyers can view the collections.
But Jean insists that Italian designers of color deserve special promotion by the Chamber, whose role is to promote Italian fashion.
Jean said the progress of recent seasons — including opening fashion week with WAMI designer Joy Meribe’s show, and Jean’s return to shows in September — turned out to be “performative.”
“They’re using WAMI as a free pass for diversity-safe behavior,” Jean told the AP, saying she’s fighting fatigue in a “continuous fight” for recognition for designers of color in Italy.
“I’m a fighter by nature, but I can’t always be that way,” she said.