«Fab 5: We Are Made in Italy»: five BIPOC talents open the Milan Fashion Week

The new queens of Made in Italy are five talents BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of color), protagonists of the project «Fab Five», promoted by YOU, the first black board of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion, with the collaboration of Condé Nast. Exclusively for Vogue Italy they told their stories wearing the garments of their collections for a photo shoot coming out in the October issue.

The new Made in Italy, never told before, diverse and inclusive, is staged at the Milano Fashion Week with five women, five talents of Italian fashion with roots in five countries: Cuba, Haiti, Togo, India, Morocco, protagonists of the event Fab Five – We are Made in Italy. They are Sheetal Shah, Nyny Ryke Goungou, Romy Calzado Celda, Zineb Hazim and Judith Saint Germain, to whom, this year, the opening moment of the Milanese Fashion Week was entrusted.

In fact, last September 22nd, a virtual fashion show was staged, through the video entitled Fab Five, we are not a fashion, signed by Antonio Dikele di Stefano, Italian writer of Angolan origins and director of the Netflix Zero series, previewed in the spaces of the Permanente in Milan.

The video also saw the participation of a special guest: Edward Enninful, Editor in Chief of British Vogue and European Editorial Director of Vogue, constantly engaged in scouting and enhancing undervalued talents in the name of diversity, inclusion and equality.

Fab Five – We Are Made in Italy is just one of the many projects of the WAMI team, founded in 2020 by designers Stella Jean (the only Black member of the Italian Chamber of Fashion) and Edward Buchanan, and by Michelle Francine Ngonmo, head of the Afro Fashion Association, a non-profit association founded in 2015.

Fab Five allowed, for the first time in the history of Italian fashion, to give voice to talents BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of color) who, having never been able to count on the real support of the great Italian brands, have remained invisible figures in the world of Made in Italy. And if at an international level, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, something has changed and many creatives have obtained good feedback in other countries, in Italy there is still a lot of work to do.

WAMI was born precisely with the aim of fighting for concrete and not just theoretical inclusiveness, counteracting all forms of racism and working to ensure effective recognition of the contribution that BIPOC creativity can make to the fashion sector. An articulated project which, thanks to the scouting work conducted by Michelle Francine Ngonmo over time, has made it possible to build a real database of Afro-descendant talents. We Are Made In Italy is, in short, the answer to the question of many Black creatives: “Do Black lives matter in Italian fashion?”.

Also in support of the project Virgil Abloh – artistic director of the Louis Vuitton men’s line and founder of the Italian brand Off White – who for the occasion designed the T-shirt with the inscription We are Made in Italy, the proceeds of which will be donated to the Afro Fashion Association.

This year, the WAMI team has also received the support and commitment of Condè Nast in this revolutionary process to guarantee equal opportunities to creatives and designers of all origins in Italy, promoting their collections and their talent.

Below are the profiles of the Fab 5 designers and their collections:

Judith Saint Germain: Haiti (Camp Perrin) – Italia (Treviso)
Collection: UNCHARTED
At the age of twenty-seven after earning a degree in fashion design at the IUAV in Treviso, Judith Borsetto opens her own research, design and stylistic consultancy office for fashion companies: JBTF. In the meantime she develops her personal collection of women’s accessories, in which the designer emphasizes the contrast between two- and three-dimensionality through elegant embroidery on soft laser-printed leathers. The shoes were made in collaboration with the MGEMI company at the artisan workshops in Pisa.
The name UNCHARTED comes from the love for one of his two homeland mothers: Haiti. The pearl of the Caribbean that has never had the chance and pleasure to explore, the same colors in the collection are a tribute to the Haitian flag. Accompanying the capsule are belts with meticulous attention to detail and gold-plated silver jewels branded with the J logo.
Judith uses her original surname as her stage name: Saint Germain, as an ode to her home away from home.

Sheetal Shah: India (Mumbai) – Italy (Milano)
Collection: Breaking Identities
Sheetal began his training in India in Ahmedabad, to then land at the Central Saint Martins School in London where, after obtaining a BA in textile design, his work was selected for an internship in Italy first in the Como silk district then in Naples where he refines the sartorial technique.
Through her genderfluid Breaking Identities, Sheetal is determined to break material and social identities. The idea behind the collection aims to unhinge the heritage of denim fabric, “elevating” it to tailored suits and shirts with blends of colors that represent the diversity of the Indian contribution nostalgically evoked through colored shantung and silks. To this are added: masculine cuts and an in-depth study on genderless shapes. The presence of recycled materials also shows its sensitivity to environmental issues and to the work of considered “low-income countries”.

Nyny Ryke Goungou: Togo (Lomé) – Italy (Varese)
Collection: YUME – The Japanese dream
Nyny after attending the artistic high school in Varese, she obtained a degree in Fashion & Textile at the NABA in Milan, and then specialized in industrial modeling at the Istituto Secoli in Milan, and completed with a master in Lingerie and Corsets at FORMAMOD in Paris.
Nyny Ryke defines her collection as “ethical chic”, for the ethical choice of materials and sustainable processing methods, all proposed in a range of warm colors that refer to the shades of the sunsets of her native country. The capsule is based on experimentation with natural fibers. After studying for years with artisan women in Togo, Nyny has in fact developed the Kentè League. Starting from the best known of the traditional Yoruba fabrics, he has patented a contemporary reinterpretation, managing to obtain a more malleable product with a consistency similar to linen, combining it with the first Stretch Kentè, born from the combination of the original thread intersected with elastic threads that reproduce a new version of the smoke point. In the collection that she presented at MFW, the volumes fully enhance all the qualities of the fabrics, unexpectedly combining the influence of the Japanese tradition, of which she is passionate, with African fabrics.

Romy Calzado Celda: Cuba (Avana) – Italy (Pavia)
Collection: Unlabeled
Romy first trained at the Art School of Udine and then specialized at the Burgo Institute of Milan in fashion design and CAD modeling, where she moved to the role of teacher in the Palermo office. He developed a passion for the world of ethnic prints thanks to a work experience at Etro.
With Unlabeled Calzado has created a capsule of anti-Covid garments. A collection born from the experimental work carried out in the laboratories of Directa Plus spa, Como, leader in the nanotechnology sector, which made avant-garde antiviral materials available to the stylist. Among these also a very particular denim, proposed with a geometric print made with graphene, a material able, according to recent studies, to limit the presence of viruses on textile surfaces. The project, in addition to being extremely topical, is linked to the theme of sustainability because it allows to reduce the number of washes of a garment, counteracting energy waste and the impact on the environment. A conscious and current choice, which without losing faith in the future, wants to get rid of the labels: «Today’s society tends to label every subject in order to simplify our reality and reduce our cognitive load; the designer must give meaning to characteristics, singularities and expressions ».

Zineb Hazim : Marocco (Fkih Ben Salah) – Italia (Forlí Cesena)
Collection: Business woman
A recent graduate of the Cesena Fashion School, Zineb trained in Italy working in the fashion world. From these experiences, however, she realizes that there is no clothing capable of combining her dual need as a professional and Muslim woman.
That’s why he decides to create the first collection aimed at Muslim businesswoman. His collection is a modern reinterpretation of Islamic aesthetics projected into a business dimension. The capsule reveals the ambitions and self-determination of Muslim women, giving them a voice and showing the world that being modest does not exclude being modern. In the panorama of the most progressive part of the Muslim world, the new generation of professional women – doctors, restaurateurs, architects, artists – respond with pride to the Western world by giving an authentic and aware image of themselves.
Zineb has chosen Prince of Wales as the fil rouge, a fabric that represents the quintessence of classic and masculine style, demystifying it with bright contrasting colors to tone down its seriousness. The length and shapes of the garments, on the other hand, confirm the identity of the Muslim woman and her desire for sobriety.