Pitti Immagine Uomo is a collection of fashion industry events that is considered one of the world’s important platforms for men’s clothing and accessories, and for launching new projects in men’s fashion. It’s held twice a year in Florence, Italy, and just took place Jan. 12-15.
At one of the fashion shows in Florence’s Pitti Immagine Uomo schedule last week, there was some very meaningful casting behind the model roster.
Three of the models on the Generation Africa catwalk were asylum seekers from Mali and Gambia. Asylum seekers are refugees whose refugee claim status hasn’t yet been fully evaluated.
The show, organized by the ITC Ethical Fashion Initiative and Fondazione Pitti Discovery, showcased the fall 2016 collections of four African labels: Lukhanyo Mdingi x Nicholas Coutts, AKJP, Ikiré Jones, and U.mi-1.
PHOTO: GIOVANNI GIANNONI/GENERATION AFRICA/refinery29.com
The models’ identities cannot be disclosed due to the sensitive, precarious status of being an asylum seeker. According to a press release from Lai-momo, an Italian organization that works with migrants, the models are 19-to-27 years old with vocational backgrounds that vary from farming and construction work to waiting tables.
Prior to their paid modeling debuts at Pitti, the three men lived in Bologna, Italy, since May while going through the asylum application process.
It’s the first time that Ethical Fashion Initiative has featured asylum-seekers on the runway.
“We wanted to offer a different view of the problem of asylum seekers in Europe today and a practical solution to address it,” Ethical Fashion Initiative founder Simone Cipriani told Refinery29.
That solution, according to Cipriani, involves “training (asylum-seekers) in the value chain of fashion for some of them to work in it or develop some micro business back in Africa with our network of African fashion designers and producers.”
Globally, there are currently 11,899 asylum-seekers originating from Gambia and 10,919 asylum-seekers from Mali, according to the UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency.
