Stella Jean is a Haitian-Italian and her work often merges classical Italian tailoring with Afro-Caribbean themes and imagery from Haiti, resulting in a cultural fusion of her own identity. Her collection showcase Laboratorio Delle Nazioni was a multicultural collaboration with the local artisans of Chitral, Gilgit and Hunza, who shared and combined Italian design with their centuries-old traditional, intricately hand-embroidered typical Chitrali motifs – white on red, blue and orange being the main colour theme they stuck to – in chain stitch on over 300 meters of fabric for the Stella Jean collection. Forty-six women, under the guidance of Karishma Ali made the pieces for Jean’s collection, 19 of which transformed needling into embroidery with their own hands. The Truck Art design in the collection as well as the hand painted brogues were made by truck artists of Lahore. Laboratorio Delle Nazioni featured flowing silhouettes, paying an ode to traditionally rich and exquisite Pakistani craftsmanship distributed throughout Pakistan – from Chitral to Lahore and while working modern cuts into the capsule.
