“Two years ago I stopped showing my collections. I made the decision that I wouldn’t put on a fashion show until I wasn’t the only Black designer on the catwalk. I didn’t want to be the only exception to the rule,” said Stella Jean, the driving force behind the WAMI collective, established in 2020 when she joined forces with fellow designer Edward Buchanan and Michelle Francine Ngonmo, Founder and CEO of the Milan-based Afro Fashion Association. Since then, scouting, supporting, mentoring and giving visibility to an ethnically diverse range of fashion designers has been their unwavering purpose, which has borne fruit, with Camera Della Moda also lending a helping hand. The collections by the first Fab Five designers (that’s the moniker used by the Collective) were presented in 2020 during the last physical Milan Fashion Week before the pandemic.
The strong-willed Jean’s dream came true this season, when an emotional event was staged to celebrate WAMI’s achievements and the beginning of a new phase. It was a truly collective, communal affair, full of joy, music, dancing—and a few tears. Stella Jean showed her spring 23 collection, Edward Buchanan displayed his latest Sansovino 6 offer, and the WAMI collective offered the creations of the new Fab Five designers. There was also a tribute to Giorgio Armani, who was the first to give Jean the opportunity to show (in his Armani Teatro in 2013) when she just started: Fab Fives past and present paid homage to Armani using fabrics provided by the designer. Armani will also offer an internship to one of the WAMI designers.
The communal show gave credit not only to Jean, Buchanan and Ngonmo’s unwavering commitment, but also to the talent and creative potential of all the fashion designers showcased.
Jean riffed on her best-ofs, injecting new energy into her imaginative looks. She called the collection “a cultural corridor,” built with artisans from Madagascar, who are extremely skilled at weaving natural raffia into beautiful handcrafted creations. She also renewed her longtime partnership with the Umbrian women artisans she has worked with before. Together they came up with inventive propositions, simple-shaped pieces with a decorative character and a strong, progressive social message.
A skilled designer with great fashion expertise, Buchanan reworked indigo pieces from his extensive knitwear archive, dating back to 2009. His upcycling masterclass gave new life to vintage denim, which was distressed, bleached and worn back-to-front.
This year’s Fab Fives come from different parts of the world, each of them expressing their own unique vision. Vietnam-born Phan Dang Hoang turned vintage silk scarves into flowing long dresses; Haitian creator Akilah Stewart showed small satchels made in eco-friendly materials; South-Korean Kim Gaeun presented an artsy collection inspired by cartoon characters; Eileen Claudia Akbaraly, of Indian, Italian and Malagasy descent, showcased a shoe collection and beautiful pieces entirely woven from raffia, handcrafted by women’s collectives in Madagascar.
This year’s Fab Fives joined forces with the five designers who previously showed their work in 2020 (Joy Meribe, Claudia Gisele Ntsama, Mokodu Fall, Karim Daoudi and Neha Poorswani), each creating a piece in tribute to Giorgio Armani, a committed WAMI supporter.
