MILAN — The third edition of the Black Carpet Awards held Wednesday night during Milan Fashion Week at Teatro Manzoni was filled with emotional award acceptance speeches, a sense of community, and determination to keep fighting for the values of diversity, equity and inclusion in the creative industries and society at large.
The godmother of the event’s 2025 edition, supermodel Naomi Campbell, was not in attendance but shared a video message encouraging the awards’ nominees to be fearless and courageous.
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“Tonight’s a celebration of those who build bridges to unite us rather than divide us. It’s about the power of community to shape our future. We’re here to champion the core values that light our way: true inclusion, authentic representation, fearless leadership and creativity with a purpose, that has a real positive impact impact,” she said.
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“To every single nominee tonight, I see you, we see you… you are the architects of change… my spirit is with you all. Remember this, from visibility to victory,” she concluded.
Echoing her words, Michelle Francine Ngonmo, the founder of the Afro Fashion Association and the mastermind behind the awards, stressed the importance of the event against global turmoil and attacks on DEI policies.
“We’re living in complex times. Every day news speaks of conflicts, of tensions, of walls raising instead of falling, this is the reality we all face. But precisely for this reason, events like this have an even deeper meaning, because the Black Carpet Awards remind us that despite difficulties there are voices building instead of destroying, voices uniting instead of dividing,” she said.
Aimed at honoring the leaders of change based in Italy and belonging to underrepresented communities who are active in creative and entrepreneurial industries, the night hosted by Tamu McPherson drew the likes of Bethann Hardison, former model, advocate and adviser; Sabina Belli, chief executive officer of Pomellato; Marco Bizzarri, former Gucci CEO and currently cofounder and CEO of private equity firm Forel; Golden Goose CEO Silvio Campara; Carlo Capasa, president of Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana; designer Edward Buchanan; Afef Jnifen, and Chiara Ferragni, among others.
The awards recognized talent from across fashion, design, food, music, sport and cinema, among other fields, in hopes of furthering the DEI conversation globally.
Ten “Leader of Change” awards were handed out across the entrepreneurship, legacy, community, culture, and creativity categories, presented by a diverse group of executives and fashion professionals, including Capasa, Bizzarri and Buchanan.
In their acceptance speeches, winners took pride in building safe spaces for the Black and underrepresented communities to be welcomed, and seen through their voices and entrepreneurial ventures.
Many also shared their pieces of advice for younger creatives and talent, highlighting the importance of championing one’s heritage and roots, such as Antonio Dikele Distefano, the recipient of the Leader of Change Award for creativity, who said “never reject your origins and always give back. I’m opening a school in Angola [where his family roots are], and I’m sharing this news because I want to encourage everybody to do the same,” he said.
Rediet Longo, the winner in the entrepreneurship category, said that the award celebrates his two roots — Ethiopia, his native country, and Italy, where his adoptive parents provided him with a second life opportunity.
The other awards for culture, community and legacy were presented to Nogaye Ndiaye, Aya Mohamed and Igiaba Scego, respectively.
In addition to the jury prizes, five people’s choice awards, one per category, were bestowed, based on online voting, upon Mariam Battistelli, Caterina Monda and Debrina Aliya, Ronke Oluwadare, Augusta Carter, and model Leandra Medeiros Cerezo, best known as Lea T.
The event also bestowed its One-Time Award, which every year is named after a Black personality who has contributed to and promoted the Afro-descendant culture on the global stage.
This year’s award dedicated to Koyo Kouoh, an artist who has shaped the African diasporic art in Italy, was handed to Janine Gaëlle Dieudji. Last year’s award was named after the late Virgil Abloh.
In an interview ahead of the event, Ngonmo touted the association’s resilience over the past 10 years. “We’re worked painstakingly to create space for visibility, access, recognition and opportunities for underrepresented communities in the creative world at large,” she said.
“We didn’t disrupt the scene by pointing fingers to companies which were not doing enough. Our approach has always leaned on questioning together how things are done and how to do better,” Ngonmo offered. “If we want to work on inclusion then we need to listen and embrace every stakeholder’s needs,” she said.
Ngonmo said that the Afro Fashion Association has helped diversity, equity and inclusion overcome the tokenistic approach, making room for honest conversations and debates on the topic within the Italian fashion and creative industries.
“We have become a platform for visibility and access to the fashion world… younger talents feel like they have found a safe space and brands know we are a stronghold for [diverse] creativity,” she noted. “We’ve proven that diversity twins with innovation as the cultural mix typically enhances the creative output,” she noted.
The organization has been active in Italy since 2015 spotlighting talent of different backgrounds with an original focus on the African continent drawn from a database of more than 3,000 professionals.
It has since opened outposts in Cameroon, Ghana, Rwanda and Ethiopia, in addition to Italy.
“It’s been 10 years filled with milestones, which also prove a systemic change, which is still small, still invisible somehow, but we’re on the right track,” Ngonmo said.
As the Trump administration’s anti-DEI orders have sown fear and confusion among corporate leaders in the U.S. and globally, the Afro Fashion Association founder acknowledged that while there has been some stepping back, DEI is no longer optional in customers’ minds. “They are claiming and expecting cultural credibility from brands and corporate leaders,” she said.
At Wednesday night’s Black Carpet Awards, the Afro Fashion Association also unveiled “The New Wave,” a selection of 10 innovative and inspiring emerging creative talents from around the world.
The inaugural Black Carpet Awards were held in February 2023 and although organizers were hoping for a second edition exactly a year later, they ultimately decided to push back the event to last September.