Michelle Francine Ngonmo

Michelle Francine Ngonmo is the founder of the Afro Fashion Association, an organisation advancing Black designers within the Italian fashion establishment.

Born in Cameroon and raised in Italy, the social entrepreneur, cultural strategist and educator experienced the systemic barriers and absence of visible Black representation across the country's creative industries firsthand. In 2015, Ngonmo established the non-profit Afro Fashion Association in Milan to discover, mentor and accelerate talent from multicultural backgrounds.

Over its first decade, the association supported approximately 3,000 Black and underrepresented creative professionals. Expanding the platform, Ngonmo founded Afro Fashion Week Milano. In September 2020, she co-founded the We Are Made in Italy initiative alongside Stella Jean and Edward Buchanan, partnering with the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana to present the Fab Five Bridge digital showcase on the Spring/Summer 2021 calendar and debut five Black Italian-based designers. She launched The Unseen Profiles in February 2022, creating a comprehensive database connecting Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) creatives to global fashion houses. She also serves as head of the fashion design department at LABA Douala in Cameroon, establishing exchange programmes with Istituto Marangoni Milan, and works as a visiting professor and collaborator with institutions across Europe and Africa, including an appointment as Porteuse de Mission at Sorbonne University in Paris.

In February 2023, Ngonmo inaugurated the Black Carpet Awards during Milan Fashion Week to honour leaders of diversity, equity and inclusion across fashion and culture. She staged the ceremony's second edition in September 2024, expanding the platform to introduce the Virgil Abloh Award. In September 2025, she hosted the third Black Carpet Awards at Teatro Manzoni on the official Milan Fashion Week calendar alongside the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana and the City of Milan.