Milan (AFP)

Last-minute touch-ups on a frilly white dress, hastily woven braids, a final coat of powder brushed on: the Black Lives Matter in Italian Fashion show kicks off, opening the prom of the womenswear week in Milan.

"I'm a little nervous," admits Claudia Gisèle Ntsama, 29, from Cameroon, one of the five stylists of African origin in the spotlight.

This is the consecration after a hard battle of this collective fighting against racism in Italian fashion.

Coronavirus pandemic requires, the filming of the parade which AFP attended was done behind closed doors, in the sumptuous premises of the Philological Circle in Milan, a stone's throw from La Scala.

The fashion show was broadcast Wednesday morning in streaming.

A victory for Black Lives matter in Italian Fashion?

"I would rather say that it is a first step", tempers Michelle Ngonmo, co-founder of the association alongside designers Stella Jean and Edward Buchanan.

Next step, "we will have to make the society in which we live understand that the + Made in Italy + label is not a question of skin color but of know-how".

The models wear an eco-friendly look entirely in hemp in pastel tones for Claudia Gisèle Ntsama, then fluid silk dresses with floral prints in black and white hues enhanced with red for Frida Kiza, the brand created by Fabiola Manirakiza.

"In general, we are ignored, we are invisible. But this is a rebirth," exclaims this stylist with sparkling eyes, whose parents were killed in 1972 in interethnic massacres in Burundi.

- 'Wall of silence' -

Founded in 2020, the anti-racist collective was able to attend Milan Fashion Week for the first time in September, with a video featuring the same five designers.

But "it was just a presentation, now we're on the official calendar, I've been dreaming about it since I've been in fashion," recounts Mokodu Fall, 45, a stylist from Senegal.

Its capsule collection pays homage to its African origins, with satin patterns of lions and zebras in gold and red, its favorite colors.

Previously, the presentation of black designer brands was confined to Afro Fashion Week, the first edition of which was organized in Milan by Michelle Ngonmo in 2016.

“For years, we came up against a wall of silence knocking on the door of the Italian Fashion Chamber,” says this activist born in Cameroon.

450 black stylists live in Italy, but Stella Jean was the only one to become in 2016 a member of the Fashion Chamber, which has more than a hundred.

Then, the sudden death of African-American George Floyd in May 2020, suffocated by a white policeman in Minneapolis, sparked a planetary shock wave, shaking mentalities.

- 'Awareness' -

"It is certain that the death of George Floyd was an important moment of awareness for the whole world," Carlo Capasa, president of the Italian Fashion Chamber, told AFP.

Thanks to exchanges with Black Lives Matter in Italian Fashion, "we have become more aware of this theme" of racism.

“In fact, we could have done more,” he admitted.

The organization now supports the collective through tutoring as well as by funding the parade of five black designers and the collections of three of them.

"As a woman and an immigrant in Italy, I had to work twice as hard to prove that I have the same skills as the others," says Joy Meribe, born 43 years ago in Nigeria.

Her collection - dresses and skirts made from 100% organic silk, in yellow, Atlantic blue and dark red - is made entirely in Italy.

In Italy for 25 years, Edward Buchanan, African-American stylist and co-founder of the collective, says he has experienced racism on a daily basis.

“People generally think that I make t-shirts, hip-hop fashion, they find it hard to imagine that I work in the luxury sector,” he says.

But this first official show of the collective gives hope.

"It's a dream come true," says Karim Daoudi, 27, shoe designer born in Morocco.

"I hope my shoes will go around the world."

© 2021 AFP