Fashion Minority Alliance hosted the latest edition of its ‘Hands in Fashion’ initiative in Rome last month. Held in partnership with Hotel de la Ville, one of the two Roman properties of the luxury hotel group Rocco Forte Hotel, together with our third sector partner, Black & White, it continued the our commitment to encouraging a richly diverse future of the fashion industry from grassroots level by fostering fashion-centric activities for young people from minority and historically marginalised backgrounds.
‘Hands in Fashion’ is a Fashion Minority Alliance initiative and forms part of the FMA x PVH 2024 High School Fashion Futures programme aimed at empowering and inspiring underrepresented high school talents to explore careers in the fashion industry.
The Ivy Room of the Hotel de la Ville, with its flora-inspired woodland décor, was the perfect setting to inspire the forty high school students, aged 13-19 from diverse underrepresented communities that included Peru, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Philippines, Mali, Korea, Morocco and Iraq amongst others. The programme kicked off with a workshop that saw the young creatives guided through a step-by-step process of crafting their own leather wallets and handbags from kits of waste leather supplied by London based accessories brand, Nosakhari Artisans Life. The hands-on experience allowed the students to not only express their creativity but also provided valuable insights into artisan practices, a core mission of the Fashion Minority Alliance initiative as a way to preserve artisan practices and promote mental wellness through hand craftsmanship.
The workshop was complemented by two inspiring, and much anticipated, presentations from notable figures within the global fashion industry; Italian-Haitian fashion designer, Stella Jean, shared insights into her personal creative journey and the powerful role fashion can play in shaping a more inclusive society. Her perspective and experiences, particularly how she draws from her own mixed heritage in her designs, resonated with the young participants, offering them valuable insights into the possibilities within the industry and reiterating that there are many paths to success.
In addition, Celia Sears, founder of Milan-based Show Division, shared her expertise in providing backstage support for fashion shows and shed light on the importance of understanding diversity behind-the-scenes, as well as highlighting the diverse range of roles and opportunities available within the fashion eco-system.
Fashion Minority Alliance Co-Founder Barbara Kennedy-Brown said: “As an organisation we recognise the importance of early engagement and with that in mind we created ‘Hands in Fashion’ to afford underrepresented and historically marginalised young creatives the opportunity to be encouraged, inspired, and guided on a privileged pathway. In the four years since we formed, we have successfully implemented Hands in Fashion in Milan, London, Upstate New York, and now in Rome, which we could not have accomplished without the total support and generosity of Rocco Forte Hotels and its team at the luxury Hotel de la Ville. The expansion of the program with such high profile guests, such as Stella Jean and Celia Sears, underscores its effectiveness and our dedication to making a long-term impact on diversity and inclusion in the creative sectors”.
