Stella Jean Drops Out of Milan Fashion Week Due to 'Abandoned' Inclusivity Efforts

She also announced a hunger strike following the Italian fashion chamber's actions.

Stella Jean, the Italian-Haitian designer who has advocated for diversity and inclusion within Italy's fashion industry, announced she's dropping out of Milan Fashion Week after hitting a breaking point with the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI, governing body of Italy's fashion industry), which she alleges "abandoned" a project to support young BIPOC creatives.

"The chamber told us, 'We didn't know there were Italian designers who weren't white.' We brought them to the runway. They supported us for two years. Then we were abandoned," Jean said during a press conference held by the CNMI, as reported by the AP.

She also revealed that five other members of the We Are Made in Italy (WAMI) collective — a collective of designers of color founded by Michelle Ngonmo in 2020 that aims to draw attention to the lack of diversity in the industry and bolster inclusion — would withdraw from Milan Fashion Week, which begins on Feb. 21. (Some WAMI alums, like Zineb Hazim and Karim Daoudi, are still on the calendar.)

At first, the CNMI supported WAMI, Jean said at the press conference, but that began to fizzle out in 2023. She alleged that the organization "backtracked on a promise to create a Black board within the chamber to promote diversity and inclusion," according to the AP. She and Ngonmo told the publication that, while the CNMI financially backed two WAMI classes, the third hasn't received funds. Jean also spoke about the personal challenges and retaliations she's faced after speaking out on racism.

In response, the AP reports that CNMI President Carlo Capasa said: "Stella's contribution has always been appreciated. We Italians need to have our conscience stimulated. As for WAMI, we are not people who retaliate. For us, it is important to promote new brands."

Diversity and inclusion are major issues in fashion in Italy, as they are in the United States... and virtually most other places. Jean has been at the forefront of pushing for more diverse runways and a more inclusive fashion industry in Italy.

According to the AP, Jean is also going on a hunger strike, out of concern that WAMI members will face backlash over her activism.

"They used WAMI as a free pass of safe conduct for diversity," Jean said to the AP. "I am a fighter by nature, but I cannot be this way all the time."

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