Refinitiv Newscasts - Black designers celebrated at Milan fashion week

Jean

29/09/2020 17:21

Click the following link to watch video: https://share.insider.thomsonreuters.com/link?entryId=1_3d5rtgm2&referenceId=tag:reuters.com,2020:newsml_OVCXQYELN_930&pageId=ReutersNews
Source: Reuters Insider

Description: For the first time at Milan fashion week, a show dedicated to
Black Italian designers was part of the official calendar in what organizers
hope highlights the lack of diversity in the industry. Lauren Anthony reports.
Short Link: https://refini.tv/36dFaXL

Video Transcript:

It is very important for us to show the world that "Made in Italy" does not
correspond to a particular color. We want to destroy the prejudice that being
Italian means being white. "Made in Italy" was represented around the world as
being a white concept. Now, it is no longer like this. The new Italy is not
this and does not want to be this.

Italian high fashion, Black designers. It's a world few know exists, and even
fewer get to enjoy. But now, a show has been dedicated to Black Italian
designers at Milan's fashion week for the first time ever. The debut has been
made part of the official calendar, a move organizers hope will highlight the
lack of diversity in the industry. The "We are Made in Italy" digital show was
filmed in Milan's Grand Palazzo Clerici and broadcast online, showcasing the
Spring-Summer 2021 collections of five selected designers of color, who
previously struggled to get a foot in the door. Italian-Haitian designer
Stella Jean is the Italian fashion council's only Black member, and a fierce
campaigner against racism in fashion. She organized the event alongside the
Black Lives Matter in Italian Fashion collective. 

It is really sad that all these Italian brands that enjoy worldwide attention
and have a direct or indirect influence on billions of people around the world
have not realized that in Italy an entire generation is asking for a voice and
space, filling Italian squares from north to south with "Black Lives Matter"
demonstrations.

Jean is demanding the sector's governing body supports Black designers, and
she has called on Italian fashion houses to do more to confront racism. Some
have said that predominantly White Italy has shown a national blindness to
insidious racism lurking under its skin.

It is totally unfair that these people continue to remain invisible. The
Italian brands pretend not to see them and give all their attention in a
blatant way to the "Black Lives Matter" movements only outside of Italy,
supporting the United States and all the other countries, but totally ignoring
Italy. In Italy, we have a racial problem. And if we don't start opening the
wound in order to heal it, the wound will never heal.

Jean mentored the five designers featured in the show- Fabiola Manirakiza,
originally from Burundi, Senegalese designer Mokodu Fall, Claudia Gisele
Ntsama who grew up in a family of tailors in Cameroon, Karim Daoudi who was
born in Morocco, and Joy Meribe, who grew up in Nigeria