Stella Jean
I'm growing weepier day by day. What part of my psyche gave birth to the emotional me, I don't know, but I'll embrace her for the moment.
When I read the following news, I did the teary eyed thing again:
The most successful modern designer to emerge from Italy, Giorgio Armani, hand selected Haitian-Italian couturier Stella Jean to runway her spring/summer 2014 collection inside his show space.
"The new generation of Italian designers needs our support."
- Armani
Damn right they do! And so do the next generation of filmmakers and poets and painters and architects and so forth and so on. How wonderful the world feels when established creatives reach back and give a hand to those climbing up underneath them. Now do you understand why I cried? No? Neither do I. I just accept it as the sensitive side of me and move on.
Stella Jean paid her good fortune forward by partnering with the Ethical Fashion Initiative and sourcing many of her spring/summer fabrics from Burkina Faso in West Africa.
Jean is noted for mixing cultural influences to produce styles that tell a highly imaginative story of east meeting west.
You can watch the designer in West Africa by clicking her dress below:
When hard work, a unique perspective, and good 'ole fashioned giving back meet - it's worth a few good tears!
Here are some of my favorites from collections past:
I'm saving up for my very own Stella Jean piece. When it arrives, I promise no more tears!