What do Naomi Campbell, the multi-brand boutique Luisaviaroma, Otb group president Renzo Rosso, La Stampa editor Massimo Giannini, Bulgari group chief executive Jean-Christophe Babin and Women Management president Piero Piazzi have in common? Aside from being, for the most part, figures who have played a leading role in the fashion world, they have all been identified by African fashion gate as deserving recipients of the "La moda veste la pace" award. On the occasion of the World Day against Racism — 21 March — the association African fashion gate, through its honorary president Makaziwe Mandela (daughter of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and South African president Nelson Mandela) and its founder Nicola Paparusso, wishes to acknowledge the enormous strides the fashion system has made so far and, at the same time, to issue a call to institutions.

On Italian social media, 1 in 10 comments is offensive, discriminatory and/or falls into the category of hate speech; when citizenship reform is discussed on social media, for example, 6.5 per cent of comments are problematic. This is according to Amnesty International, which in October 2021 collected, over a six-week period, 6 million pieces of content published in Italy on Facebook and Twitter, monitoring public figures, news outlets, politicians and activists and cataloguing a total of 27,000 unique users. Among the preferred targets of online hatred are women, migrants, refugees, and people of non-European ethnicities. Racism exists in Italy — there is no point denying it — yet there are some sectors in which, in one way or another, things are changing.

African fashion gate, 10 years fighting racism

African fashion gate, a non-profit association that has spent ten years raising awareness on this issue, constitutes the historical memory of the journey the fashion world has made. The organisation, which defines itself as a permanent ethical laboratory against phenomena of racism, xenophobia and antisemitism in fashion, the arts and entertainment, pursues its objectives through two main initiatives. The annual "La moda veste la pace" award, presented in Brussels at the seat of the European Parliament and in Rome at the Italian Representation of the European Commission; and the Centre for Advanced Studies in Fundamental Human Rights, which aims to assist the Subcommittee on Human Rights of the European Parliament and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights in adopting measures or defining initiatives to combat racism.

Founded in 2014 in Dakar, African fashion gate originally set out to export African fashion to Europe and, conversely, European fashion to Africa. "From an initial commercial aim, over the years the focus shifted towards something more philanthropic and activist," explains founder Nicola Paparusso. "The African market didn't exist in Europe and, conversely, nobody had any interest in going to Africa, because it was a poor country. Beyond that, we also came to realise that there were various problems of racism in the fashion world. The catwalks across the world were, by and large, walked by white models, just as Black designers were ignored, with the exception of a few events that national fashion chambers dedicated to them on the fringes of fashion weeks." It was also during the same year that Naomi Campbell rightly sparked a fierce controversy — first over the extremely low presence of Black models on the catwalk, and then over the affair of the cover of Shape, a US magazine dedicated to the fitness world, where the supermodel's skin had been visibly lightened too much with Photoshop.

Naomi Campbell, castings and African brands

"In that context we realised we had fellow travellers such as Naomi Campbell and Iman Mohamed Abdulmajid, and we understood that, by joining forces, we could do something important. They were fighting their battle against racism through interviews and the pages of newspapers, and in parallel we were working towards the creation of new laws, pressing for new regulations against racism and in defence of inclusion. We soon realised, in fact, that racism had to be fought within institutions and through them, otherwise ours would have been a voice in the wilderness, because no one was listening to these messages back then unless they were obliged to. That is why we began to engage with the European Parliament, we built ourselves a structure and started tabling parliamentary questions, denouncing racist advertising and providing support to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights by sharing information and objective data on discriminatory phenomena in Europe. In 2018, institutions recognised us as the only association bringing fashion into the European Parliament: we wanted to make it understood that fashion did not simply mean turnover, but that it had a cultural value and was the expression of a social problem worth discussing."

"Diversity in castings was a battle we fought strenuously: I myself used to accompany Black models to casting directors, and they were never chosen. Afg, however, always had another objective as well: to connect emerging brands with potential buyers or investors, as well as with the press and other industry professionals, facilitating B2B meetings and thereby creating concrete commercial opportunities. We wanted African fashion to reach Italy and Europe and, to achieve this, to make African style appealing, we began building bridges between designers, bringing together Italian and African designers to create collaborations and cultural cross-pollination. Paul Roger, for example, the founder of Zenam, is a Cameroonian designer backed by Italian investors who has taken part in both Pitti and Milan Fashion Week."

Beyond Zenam, the landscape of African brands active in Italy and Europe is clearly growing today: in the last three or four years, brands have been founded by African people who grew up in Italy; since 2017 an agency, Lago 54, has been active, set up with the aim of promoting African fashion in Italy; while in 2022 Yoox, through the Tales of Africa project, showcased a scouting of six African designers on its e-commerce platform.

In 2018, Endelea was founded in Milan — a benefit company whose creations are handmade in Tanzania. Cartiera is a leather goods brand that offers training pathways and job placement opportunities for people in difficult circumstances and refugees. Afrika project is a Spanish project focused on the inclusivity of its garments, while Nyny Ryke was founded in Italy by the designer of the same name, who was born in Togo. Even from a casting perspective, diversity in terms of ethnicity and skin colour is fairly well represented compared to other instances and themes of inclusion.

Fashion vs bureaucracy

"Today the landscape has changed radically, but not because there has been a real cultural shift: in fashion there has been more of a shift in awareness — an understanding that if things didn't change, the fashion system would suffer serious damage. After H&M used the image of a Black child wearing a sweatshirt reading 'The coolest monkey in the jungle' in an advertisement, many of its stores in the States were destroyed by a community that was understandably furious. Fashion pays attention where there is a market: why would fashion have used Black models before, if the African market wasn't a profitable one? Today the situation is radically different, also because there is a great deal of attention to respect for rights and inclusion — if you show yourself to be deaf to certain issues, you are penalised."

"And while racism in fashion houses may no longer exist today — on the contrary, they have become, in a more or less spontaneous way, very inclusive — racism persists in institutions. Many brands, for example, ask us for advice on how to bring African designers into their style offices, but, regardless of whether their request is genuine or not, the biggest problem is bureaucracy: getting them into the Schengen area is genuinely complex. An African person will always struggle to break into the European market if institutions don't change: there are too many barriers. An embassy cannot deny a visa to a young person who has invitations to take part in fashion shows or training courses — it should open its doors, give these designers the opportunity to complete their training in Italy."

The 2023 edition of the La moda veste la pace award sees the presence of major players from the world of luxury. Naomi Campbell, who had already been nicknamed his honorary granddaughter by Nelson Mandela, receives the award from the hands of his granddaughter Makaziwe in recognition of her activism and commitment against racism expressed through Fashion for Relief — and she is in excellent company. La Stampa editor Massimo Giannini earned the award thanks to his editorial of 7 December 2022, "Mobilitarsi è un dovere", with which he promoted a petition for the release of Fahimeh Karimi, a volleyball coach sentenced to death by the Iranian regime for kicking a paramilitary officer. Alongside them, Luisa Panconesi, president of the event committee LuisaViaRoma x Unicef, an annual gala through which the online retailer donates stellar proceeds to the charitable organisation (for 2022, the year in which Jennifer Lopez performed at the gala, the figure stands at 8 million euros). Recognition also goes to the Bulgari board, to Only the Brave (Otb) founders Renzo Rosso and Arianna Alessi, and to Piero Piazzi, president of Women Management.