MILAN (AP) — Milan Fashion Week highlighted diversity and in a new initiative that aims to promote inclusion across the industry and the return of a showcase for underrepresented designers as five days of mostly womenswear previews for Fall-Winter 2024-25 got underway on Wednesday.
An agreement signed Tuesday by the Italian fashion council, a governmental anti-discrimination office, and a nonprofit promoting African fashion seeks to “trace, identify and fight” discriminatory practices. The initiative will start with a broad survey to create a snapshot of the representation of women, people of color and other underrepresented groups across the industry, from fashion houses to suppliers.
The president of the Italian National Fashion Chamber, Carlo Capasa, told The Associated Press that he hopes to have results in a year.
Capasa said he was approached by Premier Giorgia Meloni ’s anti-discrimination office for the initiative “to understand what can be done better,” tapping the fashion industry as a closely watched agent of change in society.
“I don’t think an association like ours can solve the (discrimination) problem, or it would be very simple to fix. I think we can try to make a small contribution,” Capasa said, adding that the government’s role was critical. “The level of awareness has changed, which is already a step forward.”
The Italian fashion industry has been under pressure since the Black Lives Matters movement to be more transparent about representation of people of color in decision-making roles. But ascertaining numbers has been stymied by privacy limits that Capasa said the new survey hopes to overcome.
He distinguished the initiative’s focus behind-the-scenes from others promoting designers of color, such as the We Are Made in Italy, which mentors designers of color living and working in Italy, and the Black Carpet Awards, which honors diversity across sectors.
Fashion hub showcases…
Read the full article here
