With their bright patterns, abstract geometric prints and tributes to the Global South, Stella Jean's designs have attracted the attention of Armani and Louboutin and been worn by the likes of Beyoncé, Rihanna and Zendaya. But the Haitian-Italian fashion designer's talents go beyond a knack for juxtaposing fabrics and lie within her ability to bridge cultural divides through her creations. Because Stella Jean's designs are much more than articles of clothing: there is a story woven into each piece.
"I didn't begin my career in fashion to make beautiful dresses – I don't even know how to draw," she admits. "For me, fashion is very conceptual: I want to share ideas and tell stories through my work. To create a sort of marriage between my Italian background and international patterns in order to produce something that has a mixed origin, one with its own distinctive identity: something local that aspires to the global."
Born in Rome to an Italian father and a Haitian mother, her upbringing was a difficult experience. "I was born in Italy in the 1980s, a time when the country was completely unprepared for multicultural families like mine – a family with a blonde father and a black mother," she explains. "People constantly stopped in the streets to point at us." In spite of the challenges, she credits her mixed background for her later success.
