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Just a day before an emerging Ghanaian designer publishes her work Milan Making her runway debut, Michelle Francine Ngonmo was figuring out how to squeeze more people into venues to keep up with demand. Hours before the show, she rises before dawn to work with her team on setting up the backstage and showroom.
Ngonmo, a 38-year-old Cameroonian—Italianhas dedicated her career to helping raise awareness African and other people of color in Italian fashion and other creative fields “because, say, there’s a lack of representation for people like me.”
Ngonmo founded the African Fashion Council a decade ago to produce fashion shows, mentor talent and recognize trailblazing achievements through the Black Carpet Awards, which will be launched in 2023. Ngonmo also teaches fashion students and regularly travels to Africa to work with designers there.
Ngonmo said that in its first decade, Fashion Africa has worked with 3,000 people of color, 92 of whom are working in creative jobs and “on sustainable career paths.”
This number is both a sign of the African Fashion Association’s success and a measure of how much more work remains to be done.
“Italy is no longer the white Italy of the imagination, but an Italy of many colors,” Ngonmo said.
The Black Lives Matters movement has sparked a discussion in Italy about the lack of people of color in influential design studios in Italian fashion, with designers Stella Jean and Edward Buchanan joining forces with Ngonmo to demand that fashion houses replace expressions of solidarity with action. The fashion industry doesn’t reveal diversity numbers, but with several prominent fashion houses emerging from scandals over racially insensitive designs or campaigns, the lack seems glaring.
For several seasons, the trio guided color creativity under the slogan “We are Made in Italy” (WAMI). But as funding for diversity and inclusion dried up and the fashion industry fell into economic crisis, the spotlight slowly faded.
“There was a reaction, really a very strong demand, to have to deal with creative people, especially black people in Italy,” Ngonmo said. “And then slowly the curtain closed because the focus was no longer on that.”
Ngonmo said she is now focused on “those companies, those institutions that have stayed with us all these years and look at the results we’ve delivered.”
These include the Italian National Fashion Chamber, which supports WAMI and provides a platform for black emerging talents on the Milan Fashion Week calendar. one Among them is Ghanaian designer Victor Reginald Bob Abbey-Hart, who heads the Victor-Hart brand and debuted a denim-focused collection earlier this month.
Abbey-Hart, who recently designed a denim collection for Max & Co., is working with Ngonmo to raise his profile. He has transitioned from showing off his looks at black carpet awards shows to speaking ahead of September’s Fashion Week shows.
The designer said his love for fashion began when he saw his first Gucci bag in Ghana.
“I realized I wanted to go where it was made. So that was my dream,” he said, even though there were many naysayers at home who only saw obstacles. “Coming to Italy really gave me a door to understand what the world really needs as a designer.”
Carlo Capasa, president of the Milan Fashion Chamber, sat front row with top fashion editors at the packed Victor-Hart show, wearing one of the designer’s exquisite denim jackets.
Capasa said the project with African Fashion Council provided visibility and behind-the-scenes support to more than 30 designers of color during recent fashion weeks. Ngonmo also received support from Condé Nast Anna Wintourwho met with the Black Carpet Awards nominees during Milan Fashion Week.
“There is still a lot of work to be done around the world in terms of diversity and inclusion, and certainly in Italy,” Capassa said, adding that Ngonmo played a key role in helping institutions “understand the needs of minority communities,” from mentoring to education.
Abi-Hart said that as a black man who has lived in Italy for the past nine years, finding opportunities in Italy remains difficult.
“Sometimes you’re disqualified before you even get to the interview room. It’s really tough and I hope people understand,” he said. “Take away the color, take away what I stand for, and just look at the work.”