Stella Jean (Q8140)
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Stella Jean is a fashion house from BOF.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Stella Jean |
Stella Jean is a fashion house from BOF. |
Statements
Stella Jean once again finds herself rewinding the tape of her memories to build her latest collection, reviving a creative process where retrospection and introspection are indispensable tools. Quoting one of her favorite Luigi Pirandello novels for the collection’s title, One, None and One Hundred Thousand Kilometers, she seeks to frame the new Italian multicultural family portrait by intertwining international research with European symbols, both roots of her own existence.Deciphering the title, ‘one’ represents the designer’s adherence to Made in Italy, which encapsulates the essence of the brand’s origins and foundations. Italian heritage reveals itself through elements of trousseau, bridal dowry, delicate embroideries ,and intricate motifs on table linens and loungewear. “I took them from my mother-in-law’s wedding chest, Donna Mirella’s ’50s treasure,” Jean explained. The homage not only preserves the artisanal savoir-faire of bygone eras but also underscores the pressing necessity of safeguarding Made in Italy craftsmanship, where Jean anchors all of her production and manufacturing.Moving onto ‘none’, this concept stands for a journey that is now taken inwards. Here Jean is referring back to her father’s tailoring atelier influence, where shirt-making was a staple. “I have developed lots of new clothing categories made of striped poplin cotton this season: dresses, blouses, skirts, and vests all become the pairing passe-partout to prints,” she said.Lastly, ‘one hundred’ are the kilometers she metaphorically and physically traversed to engage with artisans of other cultures. From Haiti to Mali, with hints of Kenya, Kosovo, and Albania too, meticulously handcrafted objects appear in the collection in the form of exotic narrow cloth strips, colorful beads, interlaced sandals, and turbans folded onto urban hats. “The only way you have to survive a colonization, is not necessarily to resist it but to embrace it in a way that does not suffocate your own culture,” Jean said, bringing this abstract “urban sea”—as she defined it—into her world, even by making her models ironically pose in gray Milan with multicolored inflatables.
3 December 2024
Nomads looking for economic opportunities in the age of artificial intelligence. For fall, Stella Jean took that idea as a chance for reflection while working with women from Mali’s desert. Just as people travel across a land, so does their creativity. At her showroom, Jean referred to “putting fibers at the center of cooperation, made up of hands and memories when nomads—displaced by forgotten crises—come together with residing tribes, welcomed by wise sedentary women.”Fabrics can be a vehicle of trade, equal opportunities and conscious development. Employing centuries-old textile knowledge, a group of Malian artisans, guided by Madame Collette Traoré, found themselves a temporary space of co-creativity with Stella Jean, called the Laboratory of Self-Taught Craftsmen and Anti Algorithms. “It is both craftsmanship and tailoring that bring Africa to Europe, the north to the south,” said Jean. Her collection incorporated narrow cloth strips woven by Malian artisans with motifs referring to of their wandering, violence and discrimination, alongside cotton poplin, thick wool and European Prince of Wales fabrics. Among the textiles Gaufré stood out: a thick cotton canvas dyed with tree bark and leaves, it’s an exceptional resource and was a highlight of the collection.
23 February 2024
As a UN global ambassador, Stella Novarino’s mission involves collaborating—and living with— artisans all over the world, not just to show their crafts through fashion, but to help communities become and remain self-sufficient. Previous collaborations have taken the designer to Ghana, Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso, Pakistan and, lately, Peru—as well as Haiti, where her maternal family tree is rooted.“When you go to these countries, it’s like a candy shop for creatives—you want to use everything,” she recounted during a showroom visit. That’s not possible, of course, but a designer also has to communicate what she’s doing. “When you’re living in a place without water or electricity, it doesn’t necessarily mean anything to the people there that you’re putting their work on an international catwalk. The cliché doesn't work, but it gives you the freedom of a blank page.”The trick, then, is to come up with a cultural fusion of fashion and craft. For spring, that might mean splicing her bestselling shirt dresses with an openwork, embroidered bustier, or a contrasting, scarf-like print. The palm tree motif, a nod to Novarino’s home in the Marche region of Italy, appeared on springy color-blocked dresses, as openwork at the midriff or at the knee. At a time when minimalism reigns, Novarino makes a case for exuberance. Her heart is in the right place, in any case. Plus her work is about to step onto a world platform: Stella Jean is currently developing uniforms for Haiti’s Olympic athletes. “It’s not the biggest team, but we’re trying to make them the most elegant,” she said.
2 October 2023
Recently, Stella Jean spent a month in Tolconi, Peru, where, via a United Nations initiative, she worked with women artisans who rear alpaca and thread the fleece. The alpaqueras’ embroideries of cholita dolls appear on several of the pieces in her new fall collection. “It’s the first time their products reach international markets,” Jean said at a showroom appointment.Since the beginnings of her brand about a decade ago, Jean has been committed to what she calls “multicultural crossovers.” This season, there are argyle sweaters stitched with Ghanaian masks that she called a mix of “European bourgeoisie and African bourgeoisie.” A midi-length Scottish kilt is printed with the Italian wordAmore. Describing another look, Jean said, “I like this one because it seems likeDesperately Seeking Susanmeeting Jane Austen in Delhi.” It was a surprisingly fitting explanation for the printed top with bold shoulders and a trompe l’oeil lace collar worn with a wrap-around jacquard skirt, cat-eye shades, ’80s pumps, and shoulder duster earrings.As ever, the mix was the message here. Jean herself was wearing scuba shoes with a swaggering waxed cotton mac. But you don’t need to have her gift for whimsical detail to get the look. Several of the pieces were user-friendly hybrids, the most useful of the bunch being a dress that combines a striped sweater, shirt collar and cuffs, and a pleated print skirt.
25 February 2023
“Two years ago I stopped showing my collections. I made the decision that I wouldn’t put on a fashion show until I wasn’t the only Black designer on the catwalk. I didn’t want to be the only exception to the rule,” said Stella Jean, the driving force behind the WAMI collective, established in 2020 when she joined forces with fellow designer Edward Buchanan and Michelle Francine Ngonmo, Founder and CEO of the Milan-based Afro Fashion Association. Since then, scouting, supporting, mentoring and giving visibility to an ethnically diverse range of fashion designers has been their unwavering purpose, which has borne fruit, with Camera Della Moda also lending a helping hand. The collections by the first Fab Five designers (that’s the moniker used by the Collective) were presented in 2020 during the last physical Milan Fashion Week before the pandemic.The strong-willed Jean’s dream came true this season, when an emotional event was staged to celebrate WAMI’s achievements and the beginning of a new phase. It was a truly collective, communal affair, full of joy, music, dancing—and a few tears. Stella Jean showed her spring 23 collection, Edward Buchanan displayed his latest Sansovino 6 offer, and the WAMI collective offered the creations of the new Fab Five designers. There was also a tribute to Giorgio Armani, who was the first to give Jean the opportunity to show (in his Armani Teatro in 2013) when she just started: Fab Fives past and present paid homage to Armani using fabrics provided by the designer. Armani will also offer an internship to one of the WAMI designers.The communal show gave credit not only to Jean, Buchanan and Ngonmo’s unwavering commitment, but also to the talent and creative potential of all the fashion designers showcased.Jean riffed on her best-ofs, injecting new energy into her imaginative looks. She called the collection “a cultural corridor,” built with artisans from Madagascar, who are extremely skilled at weaving natural raffia into beautiful handcrafted creations. She also renewed her longtime partnership with the Umbrian women artisans she has worked with before. Together they came up with inventive propositions, simple-shaped pieces with a decorative character and a strong, progressive social message.
27 September 2022
After more than a year spent hunched over a laptop in tracksuits, Stella Jean wanted her good posture back. “I felt the need to take up more space around me, to be visible again. It’s not about being an exhibitionist, but rather to hold our place on stage with courage and punch,” she said.Boasting feisty volumes, flounced circle skirts, and ballooning sleeves, her new resort collection has a joyous sense of self-expression; evocative prints painted by the Umbrian women artisans Jean collaborates with referenced nature and faraway landscapes, contributing to a feel of exuberance. “Wearing a flounced skirt gives you a different attitude,” said Jean. “It gives you presence. When it undulates, there’s a rhythm to the walk, you have to hold your own pace with confidence.” For Jean, this is somehow symbolic of the stance we have to take to confront the future head on.Expanding shapes and volumes to mark our territory more assertively runs counter to the sentiment of absence and reduction we’ve experienced during the pandemic. It also means, on a more prosaic but impactful level, the use of more fabrics, more embroideries, more hands and eyes working on the collection. Getting artisans creatively involved is a concern that has always been essential to Jean’s ethos. “My work depends on that of many others,” she said. “If I keep reducing and doing less, the entire process will be negatively affected.” Such a choice doesn’t even cross her mind; for resort, a community of women artisans from Madagascar crocheted a few punkish raffia headpieces, which added to the collection’s feel of vitality and fun. Under the circumstances, it wasn’t easy to get them done and shipped on time, but a good challenge seems to be Jean’s energy booster of choice.
30 July 2021
Stella Jean doesn’t shy away from controversy or important causes. She has been a fierce spokesperson bringing awareness of racial inequalities in the Italian fashion system to the fore, pushing the industry to answer tough questions and to bring about effective change. In her practice as a fashion designer, her commitment to celebrating multiculturalism and the creative contribution of minorities and marginalized communities in her collections goes back a long way. Her label was actually born out of her desire to pay homage to her Haitian-Italian roots.For fall, she partnered with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Through its Women’s Committee, she teamed up with the Mountain Partnership Products initiative (MPP), which provides technical and financial support to small communities of producers and artisans in remote rural and mountain areas around the world. Jean was introduced to the work of Kyrgyz women from Barskoon, a settlement at 1,750 meters elevation in the northeast of Kyrgyzstan. The area is known for inlaid felt carpets and wall hangings traditionally handcrafted by women, using techniques passed down from generations. “When I saw all that beauty, the richness of the colors, the symbology, the history behind this culture, I was blown away,” Jean said on a Zoom call from her home in Rome. “These women are custodians of a naturally circular economy, totally equitable, and with the lowest environmental impact.”Jean connected remotely with the Topchu artisanal collective there with MPP’s support. Working with a local designer based in Bishkek, she came up with a capsule collection of five pieces featuring Kyrgyz embroidery in felt work. Jean chose simple shapes that can be easily replicated; artisans in Italy cut the patterns and sent them to Kyrgyzstan, where they were embroidered by the Topchu women. Once embroidered, the pieces were sent back to Italy to be assembled.“From next season, the collective can work on the patterns as they wish, creating new items that can be sold and bear profit,” she explained. “The patterns are not mine; I don’t own them. And the beautiful felted decorations have only been loaned to us—they’re theirs. The Kyrgyz women can source textiles locally, producing independently from outside partnerships. We’re not their saviors. We just have to accompany them, and then let them go find their own path. I think this a healthy, participatory way to look at globalization.
”Jean integrated the Topchu collaboration into her collection beautifully, while also continuing to support a network of women artisans in the Umbria region, who made specially commissioned pieces, like a fabulous fringed wool poncho handcrafted with imaginative 3D ornamentations. For their part, the Kyrgyz artisans worked on simple wardrobe staples, energizing them with their vibrant decorations in saturated colors. The capsule comprises five looks: A sweeping hooded cape and a slim city coat in Prince of Wales checks were both embroidered with colorful motifs of birds and flowers in a mountainous landscape (looks two and five), and an oversized striped cotton shirt was decorated with long-legged herons (look 22). The pièces de résistance were two gorgeous skirts—one fitted, the other cut in a trapeze shape (looks 23 and 25)—both embroidered all over with the Shyrdak motifs traditionally handcrafted on felt carpets. “Their symbology is ancient,” said Jean. “It brings prosperity and good luck. Those skirts, they’re almost like walking amulets.”
11 March 2021
The pandemic hasn’t slowed Stella Jean’s momentum at all. Her vocal commitment to resolving the racial inequities in the Italian fashion system captured global attention last year, and she’s tirelessly fostering young talents from marginalized communities, supporting their projects and involving them in her own collections.Having worked for years with the United Nations, Jean was used to traveling internationally to engage with local artisanal communities. Obviously, the pandemic has temporarily halted that. “In our confinements we’ve all felt such a hunger for nature, for the outside,” she said on a Zoom call from Rome. “Therefore, as the saying goes: If the mountain will not go to Muhammad, Muhammad then goes to the mountain.”Indulging memories of her Haitian roots, Jean commissioned a group of women artisans there to create traditional papier-mâché masks reproducing the heads of animals. Under the direction ofMagalie Dresse, they came up with colorful reproductions of antelopes, zebras, and elephants. “The papier-mâché technique is centuries old, made from paper recycled from landfills,” explained Jean. “These women don’t make artifacts because bragging about sustainability has become trendy at parties. It’s just their tradition; they’ve made art out of necessity.”Jean believes it will take more than investment in sophisticated sustainable production systems, which are mushrooming across fashion, to solve the industry’s problems: “In many low-income countries I have visited and cooperated with, I can assure you that at least 90% of their age-old artisanal practices are fully sustainable, as they’ve always been deeply integrated in their communal culture. I believe the entire world should commit to safeguarding them.” She continued: “These communities have been doing that for centuries with honesty, dignity, and without any rhetoric. We have so much to learn from them. That’s why I think that multinational luxury brands could allocate part of their resources to the global safekeeping of already existing sustainability.”For pre-fall, the visual syncretism Jean favors was emphasized in the sophisticated dévoré fabrics overprinted with batik motifs, in the Bogolan patterns printed on Prince of Wales checkered wools, and in the wild florals hand-painted on smooth waterproof cottons. Shapes were kept simple, feminine, and flattering.
Swirling plissé circle skirts cinched at the waist contrasted with sleek, practical city coats; allover-printed tiered dresses looked lovely under discordantly printed dusters. Jean has mastered the artfully mismatched look.Along the way, she has tried to expand her lexicon by experimenting in different directions, bending to the industry’s pressure for approval and recognition—sometimes with frustrating mixed results. Now Jean seems to have reached a place of mature creativity; she is much more her own woman, embracing her beliefs with strength and self-confidence. What tied together the collection’s riotous mix of optics, acting as a sort of calming antidote, was a simple, crisp men’s white shirt. “It’s an elegant, slightly BCBG passe-partout,” she said. “It’s so utterly Italian.”
4 February 2021
Stella Jean made more than a fashion collection this season. Along with Edward Buchanan (formerly design director at Bottega Veneta and proprietor of Sansovino 6) and Michelle Ngonmo (founder of Afro Fashion Week Milan), she was the driving force behind the We Are Made in Italy digital showcase, the first Milan Fashion Week slot dedicated to emerging Black Italian designers.On the phone from Rome this evening, Jean said: “Even a few months ago I would never have dreamed of this happening, so I am very happy. And last Tuesday, on the 22nd, we held this big think tank and all the big brands were there. For me this was actually the biggest event in fashion of the year, although because they asked for it to be behind closed doors, we cannot share the images or the report. But I think it’s a huge step. And having those five POC designers as part of fashion week, that’s huge too, so I’m really grateful to Carlo Capasa of the Camera Della Moda. We have started to realize the first points of cultural reform.”What an injustice, however, if Jean’s heroism and the risk she took in stepping down from the Milan Fashion Week calendar in order to catalyze these changes results in her spring 2021 not receiving its due representation.Ever since Jean was invited by Giorgio Armani to show her spring 2014 collection in his Teatro, she has used her collections to articulate a beauty that transcends borders and that relishes in the variety and contrast of aesthetic traditions from across the globe. This collection was rooted in the variety of Jean’s own birthright—the classically striped shirtdresses representing her Roman father, the richness of prints representing her Haitian mother—but also acknowledged a multiplicity beyond it.The diaspora covered was female: Due to obvious reasons, this season Jean could not make her usual United Nations–facilitated trip to partner in person with artisanal makers from a different cultural tradition (although she is forging a new linkup to be revealed next season), so instead she used deadstock to return to voyages past. Jean aficionados might recognize handmade fabrics from Benin (looks 14 and 20), Bolivia (look 23), Pakistan (looks 9, 11 and 27), and, of course, Haiti (looks 12, 21, 29,32).
28 September 2020
The women pictured in Stella Jean’s fall 2020 look book are all Italians who have been subjected to racial prejudice. In a video to accompany the collection, each recites a slur or comment they have received, breaking into laughter afterward. At a preview of her collection in Milan, Jean explained, “They’ve cried enough. I want to try to be positive about this matter.” Through her collections, Jean tries to shine a light on multiculturalism and diversity, and this is one of her most direct rebuttals to prejudice in her home country yet.But her social justice wouldn’t have much impact if Jean had not paired it with one of her strongest collections of late. Her aesthetic taste runs broad—malachite gems, ancient Rome, graphic leopard prints, and Matisse’sLa Danseall make appearances in this collection—but through a streamlining of shapes, Jean has made sense of her kaleidoscopic obsessions. Easy wrap dresses and tiered ruffle skirts are among her most practical propositions this season; yes, most are doused in color and print, but some are simple black or red with a single embroidered detail. Elsewhere she’s created Mongolian-fur-lined jacquard coats and hand-knit sweaters with serene Italian florals and landscapes. Those knits are made by women in Umbria, and her whole collection is produced in Italy. It’s just another way Jean is bringing a new multiculturalism to her home.
24 February 2020