Milan Fashion Week puts five African designers in the spotlight
A creation by stylist of Senegalese origin, Mokodu Fall, member of the “Black Lives Matter in Italian Fashion” collective, during Milan Fashion Week, February 24, 2021. MIGUEL MEDINA AFP
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The great women's fashion event opened its 2021 edition in virtual mode on February 24, pandemic obliges.
68 parades, 65 presentations and many events will be held throughout the week.
Milan Women's Fashion Week kicked off with “We are made in Italy”, with five African stylists in the spotlight!
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They were born in Africa, they have sometimes had difficult journeys, but it is now in Italy that they live and create.
Five African stylists were honored at the opening of Milan Fashion Week.
Fabiola Manirakiza was born in Burundi 50 years ago.
She learned to sew in a school run by Italian sisters in Zaire.
A doctor by training, she created her brand Frida Kiza in 2016. Her silk scarves with Massais prints are also inspired by the painting of the great master Botticelli.
Cameroonian Claudia Gisèle Ntsama, 29, did a lot of odd jobs before obtaining a design degree in Italy and working with hemp, her favorite material.
African origins, Italian at heart
Mokodu Fall, 45, Senegalese painter, transposes some of his works on clothes.
Son of a diplomat, he affirms that his collection “
reflects above all [his] African origins
”.
Today, he divides his life between Rome and Dunkirk in the north of France.
Joy Meribe, 43, Italian at heart, has left Nigeria because fashion designers are not considered, she explains.
As for Karim Daoudi, 27, he arrived from Morocco at 13 with his family in search of a better future.
Today he is a passionate shoe designer.
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