Virgil Abloh Shows Support for Afro Fashion Week Milan – WWD

MILAN — Marking its sixth anniversary, Afro Fashion Week Milan builds on the seeds that have been sown so far — forging new partnerships and gaining the support of Virgil Abloh.

Louis Vuitton’s male artistic director and Off-White founder is designing a T-shirt for sale through the Afro Fashion Association website to raise funds and support his initiative.

The new edition of Afro Fashion Week, organized by the Italian-based non-profit association that has been actively promoting the African continent’s designers and creative talent for the past six years, will take place from September 23 to 26 and include various fashion shows and talks. which continues to partner with Camera della Moda, as well as forge new ties with Italy’s Sistema Moda.

“We raised the theme of diversity and inclusion before it became a trend, this year our focus shifts to the second-hand market in developing countries and especially the African continent,” Michelle Francine Ngonmo, president of the association, said during a virtual press conference Wednesday.

This theme will be extended to all events part of the calendar and refers to “mitumba” phenomena, such as the resale of used clothing originally donated to Africa by rich countries and delivered in plastic-wrapped packages, or bundles, called mitumba in Swahili. .

This is expected to translate into a high fashion collection on recycling and recycling techniques, for which exhibitor Milano Unica, represented by SMI, has supplied textiles.

Designer Stella Jean, partner of the Afro Fashion Association and the mastermind behind Black Lives Matter at the Italian Fashion Collective along with Edward Buchanan and Ngonmo, said the theme was meant to “highlight issues that are often overlooked or invisible. It’s basically a skeleton in an open wardrobe. ”

Jean and Buchanan have been actively mentoring and mentoring the 11 designers taking part in the 2021 edition of Afro Fashion Week also from a creative point of view. This year’s “Fab Five Bridge Builders International” will include color designers from around the world. The group will consist of five Cameroon-born designers studying at the LABA Douala university, as well as six creatives based in Italy but hailing from Burkina Faso, Burundi, Vietnam and Kenya, among others.

Five female designers from five different African countries will be highlighted through the “We Are Made in Italy” project which kicks off Milan Fashion Week on September 22.

“Mentoring and mentoring activities are very important in supporting and encouraging people to learn their own values ​​and improve their skills to become the person they want to be,” said Buchanan. “BIPOC does not have to have a mentor and education is not always affordable and available,” he added.

To this end, the designer underlined the launch of a database that collects 300,000 individuals of color connected to the fashion industry, such as stylists, designers, tailors, web masters and social media managers, which will be available to the industry.

“Industry often complains about not being able to find BIPOC people to fill their open positions, so the goal [of the database] is to avoid those complaints and excuses,” said Buchanan.