[ti:A Black-Italian Designer Aims to Change Italy’s Fashion Industry]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
[00:00.04]Stella Jean is a Haitian-Italian clothes designer
[00:05.00]who is trying to change the Italian fashion industry
[00:09.44]by working with African designers.
[00:13.20]She is showing her designs during Milan Fashion Week,
[00:17.60]a seasonal event in Italy's northern culture center of Milan.
[00:23.72]The current show lasts until March 4.
[00:28.12]Jean is the only Black member of the Italian National Fashion Chamber,
[00:33.52]a non-profit group that supports Italian fashion.
[00:38.84]She credits the group with "a lot of goodwill"
[00:41.96]in cooperating with five young designers.
[00:45.60]The effort included financing
[00:48.80]and business partnerships with Italian suppliers.
[00:53.20]Jean's work became popular after Giorgio Armani
[00:57.88]invited her to a fashion show in 2014.
[01:01.92]"When you want to do something,
[01:04.48]you can do them immediately," said Jean.
[01:07.36]She said she has been working against the "mentality
[01:11.68]of a certain part of the Italian fashion world."
[01:15.68]Edward Buchanan and Michelle Ngomo
[01:19.16]are two Black fashion designers working in Milan.
[01:24.08]They collaborated with Jean demanding fashion companies
[01:28.20]show their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement through action.
[01:34.00]The Italian fashion group is continuing its efforts
[01:38.40]by collaborating with five new designers
[01:41.36]from Italy's minority communities during fashion week in September.
[01:47.84]Jean also wants the world fashion system
[01:51.88]to value sustainable production methods.
[01:54.80]So she created an event to build relationships
[01:59.28]between Italian fashion companies
[02:02.08]and African fashion designers and artisans.
[02:06.48]She is also working on a database to document
[02:10.68]examples of when African culture
[02:13.52]is misrepresented in the fashion industry.
[02:17.40]Valerie Steele is the director of The Museum
[02:21.04]at Fashion Institute of Technology, in New York City.
[02:25.56]She said many of Jean's ideas could be copied
[02:29.44]in the United States and other places.
[02:33.12]Steele has some of Jean's creations in the organization's museum collection
[02:38.92]and recorded a conversation with the Italian designer for Black History Month.
[02:45.72]Steele said Black designers are also under-represented in the United States
[02:52.36]although Black culture has done a lot for the fashion industry.
[02:57.24]"When a few years ago we did an exhibition on Black fashion designers...
[03:02.20]we were very shocked to realize that on Vogue.com, something ridiculous,
[03:08.20]like 1 percent of the designers featured were Black," Steele said.
[03:13.84]I'm Armen Kassabian. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM