Two young Ghanaian designers, Steve French and Afua Biney have been selected by Gucci as fellows for the Gucci Design Fellowship Program, an initiative meant to offer opportunities to underrepresented groups of talent worldwide from Ghana to Mexico.
The two were joined by nine other designers from across the world who will take part in the program slated for the latter part of 2020.
According to the luxury Italian brand, the diversity and inclusion initiative aims to promote cultural exchange between designers coming from different backgrounds.
Afua Biney, winner of the childrenwear category
Dr. Yvonne Ntiamoah, head of fashion design at Radford University and a research fellow at the Royal College of Arts England shared the good news on social media over the weekend.
Dr. Yvonne Ntiamoah
“Then came the Awards night with my eleventh special Award. Two Awards to Ghana, AfuaBiney for children wear and Steve French for women’s wear. The proudest momentin my career, and I have a feeling there will be more…..#guccidesignfellowship19_20,” she wrote.
According to Dr. Ntiamoah, Steve French made the list as the eleventh member despite the fellowships 10-member rule.
Designer Steve French Oduro of Steve Frenchie received the 11th special award.
Steve and Afua join the likes of Ophelia Crossland from Ghana , Nigeria’s Kenneth Ize and South African Thebe Magugu who have firmly stamped their designs in the minds of global fashion leaders.
5 finalists from Ghana in Florence for the Gucci Fellowship program
The Gucci Design Fellowship program was launched in March 2019.
It is meant to offer opportunities to underrepresented groups of talents inpartnership with 10 fashion schools in 10 countries, including Ghana, SouthAfrica, Kenya, Nigeria, China, Japan, Korea, Dubai, USA and Mexico.
