The only black designer belonging to Italy’s fashion council is withdrawing from this month’s Milan Fashion Week, citing a lack of commitment to diversity and inclusion, and announced a hunger strike on Wednesday over concerns that other minorities associated with her The designers will have to face the backlash.
Stella Jean told The Associated Press that the Italian National Fashion Chamber significantly cut support for the We Are Made in Italy collective of young designers of color working in Italy after they took it at personal cost to highlight racial injustice. Gave an emotional speech about During a runway show in Italy last September.
Along with Stella Jean, WAMI Collective is pulling out of Fashion Week, which they were supposed to open with a digital presentation.
Carlo Capasa, president of the Italian fashion chamber, told the AP he regretted Stella Jean’s decision and said the final Fashion Week calendar to be presented Wednesday is “full of diversity.”
“In the calendar we’re presenting today, you’ll see all that we’re doing for people of color who are working in Italy,” Capsa told the AP. A news conference was scheduled for later on Wednesday.
Jean sent a letter to Capsa informing him of his hunger strike, which he said would only be canceled with his written assurance that WAMI would not suffer any professional loss to the designers and supports “as a result of our history of misunderstanding”. Is.
“Given the power you have as President of the Chamber, this extreme measure stems from my collective concern about ‘soft’ or ‘hard’ repercussions, including difficulty securing funding and services from sponsors and partners . in the industry,” she wrote in a letter obtained by the AP.
Capasa said that he had not yet read the letter and was unaware of the hunger strike and withdrawal of WAMI. Both Stella Jean and WAMI appeared on a draft of the Milan Fashion Week calendar, mostly womenswear previews for next winter, released last month.
WAMI was launched in 2020 by Jean, African-American designer Edward Buchanan and head of Afro Fashion Week Milano, Michele Nommo, on the heels of the Black Lives Matters movement, to bring attention to the lack of minority representation in the Italian fashion world. can be attracted. This followed some racial slurs by major fashion houses that made global headlines.
Ngonmo told the AP that financial support for the project from the chamber had dwindled in the three years it has run so far, and Afro Fashion Week Milano was not able to come up with the 20,000 euros ($21,000) that would have cost the five young designers. Help give concrete forms to present, as well as a video.
The Italian Fashion Chamber fully supported collections for the two WAMI classes, each with five designers, but the third generation received no funding from the chamber, Ngonmo and Jean said. The September show was financed by Jean, Buchanan and WAMI through contributions from other collaborators and their own.
“Perhaps the message is that the whole industry needs to open its eyes and say, what can we do to make this happen?” Ngonmo told the AP.
WAMI designer, Joy Meribe, debuted the Milan Fashion Week preview for spring-summer 2022, marking a major milestone for the movement.
But Jean said such moves turned out to be “performative”.
“They used WAMI as a free pass to safe conduct for diversity,” Jean told the AP. She said she was acting out of fatigue with the “constant battle” for recognition for designers of color in Italy.
“I am a fighter by nature, but I cannot be like this all the time,” she said.