Fashion that fights against racism

“Fashion dresses peace” is the award given to those who contribute to fighting racism in the sector.Here are the 2023 awardees

What does Naomi Campbell, the multi-brand boutique Luisaviaroma, the president of Otb group Renzo Rosso, the director of The Press Massimo Giannini, the CEO of the Bulgari group Jean-Christophe Babin and the president of Women management Piero Piazzi?In addition to being mostly subjects who have frequented the world of fashion as protagonists, they have all been identified by African fashion gate as deserving of receiving the award “Fashion dresses peace”.On the day of World Anti-Racism Day, or March 21st, the African fashion gate association wants, through the honorary president Makaziwe Mandela (daughter of Nobel Peace Prize and President of South Africa Nelson Mandela) and the founder Nicola Paparusso, sanction the enormous progress made so far by the fashion system and, at the same time, launch an appeal to the institutions.

On Italian social media, 1 comment out of 10 is offensive, discriminatory and/or related to the category hate speech, when people talk about citizenship reform on social media, for example, the 6.5 percent of comments are problematic.To say it is Amnesty international which in October 2021 collected, over six weeks, 6 million contents among those published in Italy on Facebook and Twitter, monitoring public figures, newspapers, politicians and activists, cataloging a total of 27 thousand unique users.Among the favorite targets for hatred poured out online are women, migrants, refugees, people of non-European ethnicities.There is racism in Italy, there is no point in denying it, but there are some sectors in which, in a more or less genuine way, things are changing.

African fashion gate, 10 years against racism

African fashion gate, a non-profit association that has been raising awareness on this issue for ten years, constitutes the historical memory of the path that has been taken in the world of fashion.The body, which defines itself as a permanent ethical laboratory against the phenomena of racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism in fashion, arts and entertainment, pursues its objectives through two macro initiatives.The annual award “Fashion dresses peace”, awarded in Brussels at the headquarters of the European Parliament and in Rome at the Italian Representation of the European Commission;and the Center for advanced studies of fundamental human rights, which aims to assist the Subcommittee on Human Rights of the European Parliament and theEuropean Union Agency for Fundamental Rights to adopt measures or define initiatives to combat racism.

Founded in 2014 in Dakar, African fashion gate originally had the objective of exporting African fashion to Europe and, vice versa, European fashion to Africa «Over the years, from an initial commercial intent, we have moved towards a more philanthropic one and activism" explains founder Nicola Paparusso.«The African market in Europe did not exist and vice versa no one had any interest in arriving in Africa, because the country was a poor country.In addition to this, we then realized that there were several problems of racism in the fashion world.The catwalks around the world were generally dominated by white models, just as black designers were ignored, with the exception of a few events that the national fashion chambers dedicated to them on the fringes of fashion weeks."Furthermore, the very heated controversy rightly launched by Naomi Campbell initially due to the very limited presence of black models on the catwalk, and then due to the issue of the cover of Shape, an American magazine dedicated to the fitness universe where the super model's skin had been visibly visible too lightened with photoshop.

Naomi Campbell, casting and African brands

«In that context we realized that we had traveling companions like Naomi Campbell or Iman Mohamed Abdulmajid and we understood that, by joining forces, we could do something important.They fought their fight against racism through interviews and newspaper pages, and we moved in parallel to create new laws, push for new regulations against racism and to protect inclusion.In fact, we soon realized that racism had to be fought in and through institutions, otherwise ours would have been a voice in the desert, because no one listened to these messages at the time if they weren't forced to do so.This is why we started talking to the European Parliament, we equipped ourselves with a structure and started asking parliamentary questions denouncing racist advertisements and providing support to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights by sharing objective information and data on discriminatory phenomena in Europe.In 2018 the institutions recognized us as the only association that brought fashion into the European Parliament:we wanted to make it clear that fashion did not just mean turnover, but that it had a cultural value and was the expression of a social problem to be discussed."

«Diversity in casting was a battle we fought strenuously:I myself accompanied the black models to the casting directors, they were never chosen.However, Afg has always had another objective:connect emerging brands with potential buyers or financiers, as well as with the press and other operators in the sector, encouraging B2B meetings and thus creating concrete commercial opportunities.We wanted African fashion to reach Italy and Europe and, to do this, to make African style attractive, we began to create bridges between designers, presenting Italian designers and African designers to create collaborations, cultural contaminations . Paul Roger for example, the founder of Zenam, he is a Cameroonian designer financed by Italian investors who participated in both Pitti and Milan Fashion Week."

In addition to Zenam, the panorama of African brands active in Italy and Europe today is clearly growing:in the last three/four years brands have been founded by African people who grew up in Italy, an agency has been active since 2017, Lake 54, born with the aim of pushing African fashion in Italy, while in 2022 Yoox, with the project Tales of Africa, promoted a scouting of six African designers on its e-commerce site.

It was founded in 2018 in Milan Endelea, a benefit company whose creations are handmade in Tanzania, Paper mill is a leather goods brand that offers training courses and job placement opportunities to people in difficulty and refugees, Afrika project is a Spanish project that focuses on the inclusiveness of its leaders while Nyny Ryke was founded in Italy by the designer of the same name, born in Togo.Also from the point of view of casting diversity in terms of ethnicity and skin color is quite represented compared to other instances and themes of inclusion.

Fashion vs bureaucracy

«Today the scenario has changed radically, but not because there has been a real cultural change:in fashion there was rather a change in awareness, it was understood that if things did not change the fashion system would have suffered serious damage.After H&M used the image of a black child wearing a sweatshirt with the words "The cutest monkey in the jungle" in an advertisement, many of its stores in the States were destroyed by a community that was sympathetically angry.Fashion pays attention where there is a market:why would fashion hire black models first if the African market wasn't a useful market?Today the situation is radically different also because there is a lot of attention to respect for rights and inclusion, if you prove deaf to certain issues you are penalized."

«And if today racism no longer exists in fashion houses - indeed, more or less spontaneously they have become very inclusive - racism remains in the institutions.For example, many brands ask us for advice and to introduce African designers into their style offices but, regardless of whether their request is genuine or not, the biggest problem is bureaucracy:having them access the territories of the Schengen agreement is truly complex.An African will always have difficulty entering the European market if the institutions do not change:there are too many stakes.An embassy cannot deny a visa to a young person who has invitations to participate in fashion shows or training courses, it should open its doors, give these designers the opportunity to perfect their training in Italy."

The 2023 edition of the award Fashion dresses peace sees the presence of important players in the world of luxury: Naomi Campbell, which had already been nicknamed by Nelson Mandela her honorary granddaughter, receives the award from her granddaughter's hands Makaziwe for his activism and commitment against racism with Fashion for relief, but he is in excellent company.The director of The Press Massimo Giannini he earned the award thanks to his editorial of 7 December 2022 "Mobilizing is a duty" with which he promoted a collecting signatures for the release of Fahimeh Karimi, volleyball coach sentenced to death by the Iranian regime for kicking a paramilitary.Besides them too Luisa Panconesi, president of the event committee LuisaViaRoma x Unicef, annual gala with which the online retailer donates stellar proceeds to the charity (for 2022, the year in which Jennifer Lopez performed at the gala, there is talk of 8 million euros).Recognitions also for the Bulgari board, for the founders of Only the brave (Otb) Renzo Rosso And Arianna Alessi beyond Piero Piazzi, president of Women management.