Christopher Kane has granted BAME students from Central Saint Martin studying Fashion Journalism and Promotion unlimited access to his official Instagram account to launch PLATFORM, a brand new monthly digital zine.
Kane has partnered with students currently reading at the London arts school (of which he was once an attendee) to unveil the online magazine curated by the team behind The F Word, designed to amplify BAME voices in the fashion industry.
Speaking to British Vogue of his decision to grant students unprecedented access to his 600k-strong following, Christopher says: “My entire team knew that we had to step up and take tangible actions that go beyond online sentiments.”
Launching on August 20th, with an impassioned editors’ letter from Hannah Karpel and Yelena Grelet (both joint editors-in-chief of the magazine) calling for a “level playing field for everyone living through these tumultuous times”, the duo state: “It is time that ‘cancel culture’ stopped overshadowing the voices of those actually doing some good; and that attention is placed on celebrating the BAME talents paving the way for future generations.”
The inaugural edition of PLATFORM is set to include interviews with renowned Jamaican hairstylist Jawara Wachope and stylist to Stormzy, Joy Crookes, an ode to Black hair by Oré Ajala and an in-depth feature on queer Caribbean-British artist Talia Beale.
“This is an opportunity to celebrate BAME talents,” Karpel and Grelet tell British Vogue. “Whether it be our friends, people we admire or strangers we just discovered – and come together as a collective to produce something beautiful.”
Check out the first issue of PLATFORM online now: thefword-magazine.com/platform
