VOICES OF DENIM
The creativity was never missing. Just the platform.
A documentary by Emmanuel Ektipah Blay
Produced by Specchio Films, in collaboration with the Afro Fashion Association and Levi's
Approx. 30 minutes | 2026 | Documentary | English and Italian, English subtitles
Director: Emmanuel Ektipah Blay
Production company: Specchio Films
About the film
When a fashion curator in Milan decides that BIPOC creativity deserves more space than it has ever been given, she opens a door, and thirty creative talents walk through it.
Michelle spent years watching an extraordinary community of BIPOC creatives build careers in fashion and the arts in Milan, the heart of Italian fashion, without the platform and visibility their work deserves. Reminded by Virgil Abloh's words "I See You" of what it means to be truly seen, she decided to extend that same recognition to others. Voices of Denim is her response.
Thirty creatives from Italy, Ghana, Nigeria, the UK, the Netherlands, Lebanon, South Korea, Nepal and beyond, all connected to Milan, come together around denim, one of the world's most democratic fabrics. They are filmmakers, fashion designers, stylists, photographers, visual artists, sculptors, writers, poets, hair and makeup artists and musicians, each interpreting the cloth through their own roots, heritage and vision.
This is not a story about what has been missing. It is a celebration of what has always been there, waiting for its moment.
Premiere and press
Voices of Denim premiered during Milano Fashion Week 2026 and is now heading on a screening tour. The film and its director were featured in Vogue Italia in October 2026, in a piece on the Afro descendant filmmakers redefining Italian cinema.
https://www.vogue.it/article/chi-sono-registi-afrodiscendenti-cinema-italiano
https://www.instagram.com/p/DeEXun0CEwZ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&srtk=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==