How can fashion brands engage with increasingly multicultural communities without reducing identity to a trend, a stereotype or a marketing exercise?
This question was at the centre of an interactive guest lecture with Aya Mohamed at Ferrari Fashion School, bringing together students from different Bachelor and Master’s programmes to explore identity, representation and cultural awareness in fashion.
Born in Egypt and raised in Milan, Aya Mohamed is a creative producer and cultural curator working across fashion, media and community building. Her practice focuses particularly on helping brands connect with multicultural audiences through more informed and authentic forms of representation.
A Multicultural Classroom as a Space for Dialogue
With Ferrari Fashion School students coming from different countries and cultural backgrounds, the lecture quickly developed into an open conversation in which their own experiences became part of the discussion.
Aya invited students to reflect on their cultural backgrounds and on how identity evolves when different cultures, languages and experiences coexist. Students contributed their perspectives, compared experiences and questioned how cultural codes can be understood, or misunderstood, within fashion.
For future designers, stylists, photographers, creative directors and fashion managers, this has a direct professional relevance. Working in fashion today increasingly means creating for audiences whose identities cannot be understood through a single cultural lens.
From Representation to Multicultural Communities
A central part of Aya Mohamed’s work with fashion and luxury brands focuses on building meaningful relationships with multicultural communities.
The discussion therefore moved beyond diversity as visibility alone. Including different identities in a campaign is only part of the process: brands also need to understand the cultures and communities they seek to engage with.
Aya encouraged students to examine the difference between representation and genuine participation, addressing issues such as cultural appropriation and tokenism. When cultural references or identities are introduced primarily as aesthetic devices or isolated symbols of diversity, representation risks remaining superficial.
Building a community requires a different approach: listening, cultural knowledge, dialogue and the ability to involve people as active participants rather than simply as subjects of an image.
Aya Mohamed: Fashion, Culture and Community
Born in Egypt and raised in Milan, Aya Mohamed has developed a multidisciplinary career at the intersection of fashion, visual culture and cultural storytelling.
Through her creative practice and Milan Pyramid, she has established a distinctive voice around identity, representation and the experiences of Arab and Muslim women within contemporary culture.
Her work has brought her into dialogue with international fashion and luxury brands, including Cartier, alongside Prada, Dior, Gucci and Valentino. Her collaboration with Cartier has also brought her to the Venice International Film Festival.
Mohamed is also a member of the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Advisory Board at Soho House, contributing to initiatives around representation and community within the creative industries.
International Perspectives at Ferrari Fashion School
The guest lecture with Aya Mohamed reflected the international environment of Ferrari Fashion School, where students from different cultural backgrounds study and work together across design, styling, photography, creative direction and fashion business.
This diversity transforms the classroom into a space for exchange, where different references and perspectives become part of the learning experience.
Guest lectures complement this process by connecting students with professionals who are actively shaping contemporary fashion and its conversations. Because preparing for an international fashion industry also means learning how to listen, interpret and work responsibly across cultures.
