- I'm Mark Guiducci, I'm an editor at Vogue
and I'm here today with two figures
who don't really need introductions.
The first is the creative director of Louis Vuitton men's,
the founder of Off-White, and I kind of think of him
as fashion's Leonardo da Vinci.
And the second is a model and omnipresent ray of light
for all of us in the industry and many outside of it.
Thank you guys for being here today.
So today we're gonna have a conversation
about the relationship between personal platforms
and our careers and the importance of inclusivity
and advocating for others
as one find success as you both have.
I think we're all really excited to have that conversation
out in the open today.
The first question is for you Virgil.
It's about Free Game,
the initiative that you started this year,
and also your scholarship funds, Post-Modern.
I'm interested in what ways that this is new to you,
and in what ways it's just an extension
of what you've always done in your career.
- I always pinch myself,
I'm from Rockford, Illinois,
my parents are from Ghana in West Africa.
My background was almost in a way opposite
of the designers or icons that I looked up to
but I wanted to see myself in it.
So I've once never throughout my career lost sight
of where I started from and who I am
and a way to build that infrastructure
to sort of keep that perspective is giving back
and relating to the younger version
of myself or the predicament that a lot of young people
are in so that they can follow
in my footsteps.
Within 2020, there's a calling
for us all to be aware
of the overarching circumstances that relate
to young black people in America.
But also the world abroad is
like giving the same opportunities
to get on that sort of ecosystem
of being within high fashion.
So Post-Modern is essentially a scholarship fund
that I launched,
raising a million dollars to give merit-based scholarships
to young black students; men, women, across America.
And then Free Game is sort of for all.
It doesn't matter if you're in fashion,
it doesn't matter if you're in finance.
Essentially, it's a network of those that are in an industry
to give a breakdown of how they got their career started
in 10 bullet points and it's available for free online.
That way, any kid anywhere around the world
can go on there and see someone
that they look up to and find out,
no frills, how they did it.
- Bella, you're surrounded by people all the time;
makeup artists, hairdressers, stylists.
Usually the model is the only one
that the outside world sees.
You have enormous platform
and you really kind of freely give visibility
to the people that are around you.
- I think that the way I came up, I did by learning
from the people that I work with
and for anybody to think
that the model is the most important part of the set
is just such a false contradiction
because without hair and makeup,
set designers, photographers
there's so many different jobs that we have on set
that I send my deepest gratitude to.
And through all of this craziness,
it was hard for me to find joy in what I did
just cause I'm obsessed with my job
and I really love doing it
but I had to find the light
and I had to find what my part in all of this really was
which took me a very long time actually.
But now what I've realized is, my place is just to make art
with the people that I love.
- You're very public people.
Is there a feeling sometimes that you feel
damned if you do, damned if you don't?
How do you use your platform
in a way that feels authentic to you
and how do you get your message across the right way?
- I, for one, I'm not one that can just go to sleep
and wake up every day not advocating for injustices
or speaking up.
And of course you can get into the semantics
is like what's the way to communicate that
So it doesn't create some backlash
or it doesn't create some sort of friction.
But at the end of the day that doesn't deter me
from speaking up.
We want to see the world a better place.
I don't take it lightly.
I put it embedded within the work that I do.
The fun part must equal also advocating and speaking up
and creating inroads
for those that don't have the same platform that I do.
- It's hard to be not yourself.
Like you really have to lie to people
if you're not gonna post what you believe in,
cause if you start to just do whatever
makes other people happy
then you're really not standing up for what you believe in.
- We all sharpen each other. - [Bella] Right.
- And I think that's what doesn't get seen obviously.
But why I like us doing this conversation is just,
blazing a trail isn't like what you see on the facade.
It's the long conversations.
It's us being real people with one another
and really fostering a community.
- To have people around us that are like that
especially in our job and our work place
where for a long time,
it felt like if I even spoke about the things
that I was passionate about or cared about
it would be, not even off limits
but not that anyone would care.
So, [Virgil giggles]
it's really nice to know now that there are people
that believe in the same things I do.
- I think it's important that we're both knowledgeable
about giving space to the people doing the work
for the longest amount of time
who have the exact voice and platform
to speak on these topics
and us using our space, our residence,
our platform, our voice.
But also exalting the voice of people that are trusted
with delivering this message so change happens
is what people might not see a part of Bella
and I's day-to-day practice.
- Fashion, as an industry especially,
has learned so much in 2020
and of all the things that it has learned
I think the word empathy
is probably near the top of the list.
I'd like to know how you view the role of kindness
and empathy in your lives and work.
- Bella's the queen
of kindness - Yeah[giggles]
- So you go first[giggles]
- [giggles]Love you Virg.
In this business if you don't have kindness,
respect, integrity for yourself and the people around you,
there's no way to succeed.
And I know that it could sound harsh
but I feel like people always wonder,
why I am at the place that I matter,
why Virgil's at the place that he is.
And I think that it's because we're kind to people
and we enjoy what we do and we work hard.
And I think that if you don't have those characteristics
it's pretty hard to keep yourself happy
in this business and also respected
because you can go into set one time
and you can[snaps fingers] be a diva.
And I promise you they will not have you back.
So kindness is the only way
that I think any of us are going to survive.
- You know, we're all in some way, sort of mounting
our quiet revolution in a way.
We, like Bella and I's generation,
wanna see the industry more diverse
but for real, we hear our friends
and allies on the street protesting.
And when we go into the offices or we go on set,
we know that we're close to the message
and we make a choice to make the fashion industry
more positive, inclusive, so that younger people
following in our path get the same opportunity.
And hopefully we see change at the end of that.
- I wanted to know,
with you guys who kind of live at the white hot center
of fashion and culture, who's coming up right now
in fashion or in another industry
that you just love, either them personally
or what they're doing, and you want to see them succeed.
- Grace Wales Bonner, Martine Rose,
black women, they represent such a needed voice
in the fashion design industry.
No Sesso, I'm glad that Shayne from hood by air
is back creating fashion.
Anyone from a minority background,
I'm excited to make our industry shine.
I'm fortunate, obviously,
I've been able to make a name for myself.
I wanna see that multiplied.
- I think that it's really about going to set
and making sure there are people around you
that you can look to to say,
"Am I representing everybody correctly here?"
If just making sure that we are representing correctly
on set and that we don't go to set
where we see only one type of person.
- Guys, I think we're about to wrap it up.
Thank you very much for taking the time.
And I hope to see you both in person soon, sometime soon.
- [Bella] Thank you much.
- Bye. - Mark you're an awesome host.
[Mark and Virgil laughing] - Bye.
- [Virgil] Good job, bye.