Italy’s fashion industry lags behind on diversity and inclusion

Indications of virtue signalling unfold

One of the core initiatives launched by WAMI in Italy during Milan Fashion Week is the ‘Spotlight on…’ project, which focuses on showcasing a culturally diverse range of designers based in Italy.

During WAMI’s first presentation in 2020, CNMI ­agreed to sponsor and fund a digital fashion show featuring designers from underrepresented communities. Its investors even committed €7,000 of their own money to the breakout event.

It’s important to remember, though, that these efforts took place in a time period when many global brands and organisations were showing an outpouring of support for BLM via advertising and social media campaigns due to global protests.

In the following year, CNMI moved to sponsor another digital fashion show for emerging BIOPC designers. Its co-founders invested €15,000 into supporting the production of their collections.

But at 2022’s Milan Fashion Week, major fashion corporations such as Vogue Italia, GQ and Vanity Fair took the opportunity to fund the production of the young designers’ capsule collections.

As a result, CNMI offered only a free showroom and presentation space to support the show. This, the founders of WAMI believe, does little to solve the systemic inequalities plaguing Italy’s fashion industry.

Money and exposure helps, but not much

In the eyes of Stella Jean from WAMI, receiving funds from CNMI – which often cannot suffice to cover the full financial costs of producing numerous clothing collections – is not enough.

Jean spoke with Vogue about the need for greater representation of BIPOC within all areas of Italian fashion, saying, ‘We want to see Black, Brown, and all other colours in fashion, not just as models, but as stakeholders in the industry.’

While funding collections by BIOPC designers and offering them platforms at major events does uplift their professions, it does little to change the reality of racial exclusivity of Italy’s fashion scene.

It’s clear that there is still much work to be done to achieve greater diversity at the top of the industry. Initiatives like WAMI, and the public message they’ve sent by boycotting their local fashion week, represents important steps forward.

Only time will tell if major organisations such as CNMI will begin to do the necessary work urged of them.