MILAN – The Afro Fashion Association of Italy is launching the inaugural edition of the Black Carpet Awards at Milan Fashion Week in February, taking place from February 22nd to 28th.
The association, which has been promoting diversity, equality and inclusion since 2015 and spotlights talent from diverse backgrounds with an original focus on the African continent, will host a gala on February 22 at an as yet undisclosed location, where 10 awards in five categories will be presented. 10 leaders of change who belong to underrepresented communities are awarded.
“Throughout my career I have met people and businesses that challenge perception and rewrite the history of DE&I in the country. I thought I would celebrate them, because celebration is a form of representation that is essential,” said Michelle Francine Ngonmo, organizer of the Afro Fashion Association and, along with designers Stella Jean and Edward Buchanan, the force behind We Are Made in Italy. or the WAMI collective , who has attended recent Milan Fashion Week shows.
The Afro Fashion Association boasts a database of 3,000 professionals and talents who have been shortlisted to 25 finalists. An international jury will select 10 winners in five categories: culture, heritage, creativity, community and entrepreneurship. Speaking about the last category, Ngonmo emphasized that “diversity is often treated as a charity, when in fact it is also a driver of wealth”, she said.
The focus for the main edition will be on Italian-based personalities, businesses and associations active in fashion, design, food, music, sports and cinema, among other fields, that have contributed to the creation of new cultural and entrepreneurial paradigms in the country , but Ngonmo’s ambition is to expand the reach of the event internationally.
The event will include the screening of a video tribute to the late Virgil Abloh, a longtime supporter of the association’s work and Ngonmo.
The project is the result of ongoing conversations with other like-minded professionals who have been drawn to the Afro Fashion Association over the years.
Apart from Buchanan and Jean, Ngonmo included social media personality Tamu McPherson; art and fashion curator and digital art expert Gloria Maria Cappelletti; Jordan Anderson, the Milan-based journalist and creative director behind the digital project My Queer Blackness, My Black Queerness or MQBMBQ; art director Macs Iotti; Italy-based Ghanaian-born designer Nana Brenu, as well as Vogue Italia Chief Editorial Content Francesca Ragazzi and Nss founder and chief executive Walter D’Aprile.
“Diversity is about sitting around a table and discussing challenging the representation of marginalized communities,” said Ngonmo. “I hope this project will break down walls and barriers and help understand the importance of making connections and working together to write the story of DE&I,” she noted.
