Dear readers,
Fashion Week in NYC has already begun and many fashion houses and companies have showcased their products and collections. I’m both excited and curious to get to know what this week has in store for the industry. Journalism will be affected too, because new reports and narratives will be told within the fashion industry. A big news happened this week, via Vogue Italia.
Vogue Italia released its February’s cover on Thursday 6th, featuring IMG Models Maty Fall Diba, under the creative direction and approval of Emanuele Farneti and his team, including brand visual director Alessia Glaviano. Concurrently with my personal feelings regarding the Italian situation I’ve had the chance to see and live throughout the month of January, seeing and reading this news has shaken my insecurities away and planted another seed in my heart, nurturing once again my passions, fashion and journalism.
Being able to see and follow such a creative and impactful direction from Vogue Italia has a huge meaning to me. I’d extended the importance of this issue on a larger scale, by including all the mixed Italian girls and boys, but I can only speak for myself, no matter how much faith I have in thinking that many people who grew up like me share my same feelings.
It is refreshing to see a young Afro-Italian girl on the cover of an Italian fashion magazine, specifically Vogue. It means that there’s a shift in the industry, particularly in the European one, where stereotypes and cultural appropriations have appeared a lot in the last years, if not fashion seasons.
With a bold and fresh move like this one Vogue has done, I can foresee an encouragement in getting to known other cultures, in making Italians more flexible in terms of cultural curiosity and appreciation, with less bias and more transparency. It is time to represent everyone who is Italian, the ones who were born and have a deep connection with the country. Laws and bureaucracy apart, this is the moment when the chiefs in the entertainment and fashion businesses need to recognize the historical period Italians and Europeans are living: a cosmopolitan experience, with borders and boundaries to be discussed.
Cloudy day in Long Island this morning โ๏ธ I got up and I already knew it was going to be a tiring, but beautiful day. School, exams, homework, readings, castings, writing … Every day here in NY is always different, but the most unexpected thing this morning was to get up, pick up the phone, open Instagram and see the new cover of @vogueitalia ๐ฎ๐น I’m loving vogue Italia’s direction from the bottom of my heart and this is motivating me very much to follow my dream, which many of you know is to write, create and live in a colorful, fantastic and hard world like that of fashion ๐โ I congratulate once again with @alessiaglaviano @efarneti and with the beautiful @dibaamaty ๐ And precisely tonight I attended the @swordofthemornin fashion show with his new collection of @rebelstodons ๐น๐น and the party inauguration of my favorite twins @deeandricky and @rickyanddee ๐บ๐ธ in collaboration with @urbanoutfitters + @grillospickles Once again I marvel as a girl like me who only dreamed of a quarter in high school what she is experiencing has built up a cultural baggage full of friendships and colors and aspirations – all with so much sweat and desire to do, in less than 4 years, start from scratch, without knowing anything, with only the desire in mind to write and tell stories … thanks to everyone who supports me but above all thanks to myself ๐ป # nyfw2020 # rebelstodons # grillospickles # myfriendsbelit . . . PS: I also met my friends from Atlanta … stay tuned ๐ฎ
Fashion Week in NYC has officially begun. I had the chance to attend the exclusive Rebels To Dons fashion show as well as a party hosted by Ricky and Dee at Urban Outfitters. I was thinking how lucky and blessed I’ve been to start this fashion journey of mine, through my writing and social activism, acting and modeling, in order to pursue one and only thing that I hope one day to advocate on a larger scale: represent the underrepresented, creating stories and telling all the narratives I come across.
Beijos,
the curly flower