For Ohio-born designer Edward Buchanan, Black industry mentors changed his life. While finishing his studies at New York’s Parsons School of Design, designer Gordon Henderson put him forward for interviews at major fashion houses, while Rodney Patterson gave him a tip off about an opening at Bottega Veneta, where he would become the first ready-to-wear design director.
Now, more than three decades on, the creative director and knitwear specialist has opened a self-funded foundation to continue that lineage.
The result is a 400-square-meter building located in NoLo — a historically working-class and multicultural district of Milan — dedicated to fostering and guiding creative talents from under-represented communities, including people of color (POC), queer, and female cultural practitioners. Crucially, Buchanan will ensure the non-profit remains financially autonomous, with no outside investment. He’s calling it The Situation, after the design consultancy he co-founded in 2012.
So far, Buchanan’s put his money where his mouth is: €400,000 went into the interior’s construction and materials, a figure that doesn’t include the building’s purchase price. On the ground floor, a studio-slash-gallery will host designers, artists and all manner of creative talents in residency programs.
The creatives will work here, while presenting exhibitions and showroom openings. On the top floor, Buchanan has housed an office for himself and his assistants to work from, with an archive of his design work, spanning pieces from his days as at Bottega Veneta (1995-2000) through to various consultancy gigs.
Currently, Buchanan is building an institutionally esteemed board to guide the recipient selection process. He plans to capitalize on his extensive network and industry prestige to advise the talents, connecting them with partners and resources.
Buchanan is currently the Milan fashion director for Perfect Magazine and holds down a role as Pucci’s knitwear designer, reporting into creative director Camille Miceli. He is also the designer behind Sansovino 6, a knitwear brand he founded in 2005 and continues to run. Between 2019 and 2023, he was Off-White’s design director for knitwear.
Despite a strong résumé, Buchanan has encountered various barriers to entry throughout his career. His hopes for The Situation is to better the experience of other disadvantaged creatives climbing the ranks today.
Ahead of the non-profit’s opening, Vogue video called Buchanan during a brief gap in his Milan Fashion Week schedule to discuss the project, his own come-up, and the current playing field for POC creatives.
Vogue: Edward, how did The Situation develop from your consultancy into this project?
Well, this actually started developing five years ago. I’d closed my office [due to Covid] and moved everything into my home. As things moved along, I had to start looking for a new office. I found this space by chance; I was on my way to a furniture store. The space was just somehow very New York to me, and I fell in love.
The idea in the beginning was to move the office into the space, but the more I thought about this space, I thought, ‘Somehow, I’ve existed in this industry for almost 35 years, and the love I have for design and working in the editorial space is unparalleled. But there’s always a complaint.
I always have criticism.’ I said to myself, ‘Fuck this, Edward. You can’t continue complaining if you’re not actively attempting to initiate change.’
I really wanted to create a space where we celebrate artists from disadvantaged communities, which I am one of. I know what it was like for me at the beginning, when I couldn’t find space and support. I wanted to support creatives, whether they be queer artists, Black and Brown artists, women artists. ‘Artist’ is a broad word — it could be a chef, a painter, a fashion designer.
Vogue: Artists have creative practices, but they’re also businesses. How will you support the residencies and provide resources for them?
On Friday, September 25, we had a soft opening. I really wanted people to understand the vision and get a feel for the space, which is essentially empty.
The top floor, which is going to be called ‘At Eddie’s’ — the name my mom used to call me — is my design office, where my assistants and I will work. And there’s an archive that I’ve amassed over many years, including work from Bottega and all of my consultancies.
I’m a knitwear specialist — there’s a lot of research and textiles. It’s going to be a vast archive open for others to use.
I want to create a board, which will start selecting candidates for the first residencies. I want these creatives to be able to create projects within this space at no cost — the funds will come from the partners, from the people that I’ve collaborated with, including very high-brow and institutional organizations. My job and the people on the board’s job is to create synergy and funding so that we can create these projects.
It could be a project lasting for three months, a showroom for a designer, or a ceramic artist that wants to use the space for half a year. What’s important for me is that we find creatives that need — and that’s a big word — support, be it financial, mentoring, guidance.
I’d like this space to be part of the creation process and the presentation process: a space that we can create something in, but then have an opening to show the work.
Interestingly, [GU creative director] Francesco Risso just opened a similar operation in Milan that’s incredible. I went to see him yesterday, and I think he’s probably going to be one of the first members on the board here.
Vogue: Great news. You mentioned when working with partners, there needs to be a synergy. Why do you think partners see a value in working with you on this project?
To be perfectly honest, when I started putting this together, it wasn’t a consideration of mine. The project manager for this is actually my boyfriend, Giovanni Pigliapochi, who is a doctor but has a history in architecture.
He said, ‘Edward, you have to understand what your value and knowledge is in existing in this creative space.’ I never think about who’s in my rolodex, who I’ve collaborated with, the reach that I can potentially have.
Once we started to put this down and contact people, it was so exciting and humbling to see the responses I got. Like the smallest thing: we needed soap for the space, so reached out to Aqua Di Parma, and they were just like, ‘Fantastic.’ So they’re supplying us. We reached out to this incredible artisan parquet company called Listone Giordano, and they supplied a wood floor.
And these are companies that buy from the ground up and somehow have the same principles that we want this space to deliver. We’re really focused on what sustainability means, in the construction and in the maintenance of this space. We have solar panels. It’s bricks-and-mortar. The interiors are made with wood and metal. Everything is sustainable, upcycled or recycled, and consciously considered.
Giovanni was so careful in selecting the partners. In the end, he ended up sending out a presentation of what this project would be. We got the chairs from a company called Wilkhahn — these incredible sustainable work chairs. We’re working with a company called Acqua Chiarella, from Como, which supplies us with water. Tamu supplied us with wine. There’s a lot of these Italian-based companies — and some outside Italy — that have aligned principles.
Vogue: But it’s still self-funded?
One thousand percent. There are no funds that exist from any other source. This was important to me, because I wanted it to be solely on the basis of having the idea that we, as Black and Brown people, can economically and holistically support growing businesses that need to exist in the Italian space.
Vogue: Within the Italian space, are there nuances that you will be focusing on in your guidance for Black and Brown creatives scaling their businesses?
I intend on pushing independence. In the beginning, I was privileged, entering into a job [Bottega Veneta design director] that was larger than life as a Black American with a glossy blue passport — not knowing what would happen. When I later became independent, the opportunities just weren’t coming to me. I had to create it from the ground up.
A lot of creatives have dreams. Young creatives that work in this space have the dream of working for large companies or entering as an intern.
It’s just not happening still. These disadvantaged communities are not being sifted into companies.
I think that if I — and a lot of others that will collaborate with me on this — have that experience and knowledge to know what the system is like, we can show them how to protect yourself and build something that could potentially be your breadwinner.
It’s important to understand what independence is, as opposed to thinking you have to work within another structure.
Vogue: Speaking of mentorship and guidance, your story starts with people like Gordon Henderson, the first Black designer to win a CFDA Award.
Absolutely. The interesting thing with Gordon is that I didn’t know the strength and the power of having a mentor that looked like me.
It was the weirdest thing. I just knew I had this very talented designer in front of me that was really taking care of me.
He was like, ‘No, Edward you have to go and find more beautiful buttons,’ or ‘You have to do it this way.’ When I started interviewing, he put me in front of Calvin Klein and Donna Karan. I could give him full trust because I saw a reflection of myself in him.
The importance of seeing individuals in front of you that exist within a system is huge: Andre Walker, Byron Lars — there are many who came before me.
In the early stages of Parsons, there were very few Black and Brown designers working on Seventh Avenue. It was a real stretch for me. I’ve always known that eventually I wanted to be in the position to do the same thing.
Vogue: What’s your five-year metric of success for The Situation?
Well, the success of what I do depends on the success of the individuals. The metric for me is not a financial metric; it’s not an award that I want to receive. I just want to see these creatives be able to exist and have legs within the businesses and practices they want to create while being the exact individual that they are. I’m gassed about it. I really am. I’m ready.