Fashion show in Kinshasa challenges stigma around disability

We look at reactions from the Brazilian press after the deadly beating of a young Congolese man over back pay at his beachside kiosk job. Also, as the Beijing Winter Games get underway, there's little cheer as drastic Covid-19 restrictions and limited freedom of speech overshadow the opening ceremony. Finally, UK's Royal Mail is investigating after some of its workers got high on weed cookies!

January's summer 2022 Couture Fashion Week showcased the latest sartorial offerings from 17 labels, just over half the number included in the official calendar due to ongoing Covid restrictions. Dior's Maria-Grazia Chiuri offered an ode to embroidery at Paris's Rodin museum, Jean Paul Gaultier handed the reigns of his empire over to Belgian designer Glenn Martens, while Alexandre Vauthier embraced the Roaring Twenties as an homage to our collective resilience in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. FRANCE 24 takes you to the catwalks.

London Fashion Week is back, with an increasing share of brands cutting the use of fur and aiming to show off their green credentials. We find out more. But first, we take a closer look at the EU's new €150 billion investment plan for Africa.

The eastern French town of Lunéville has played a key role in France's fashion history. It's the birthplace of Lunéville stitch embroidery, which features on UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list. To teach it, there is only one person left: Aude. Her students come from all over the world to learn the techniques passed on to her by her grandmother. We also take you behind the scenes at Hermès, whose square silk scarves are made by a highly skilled team near the French city of Lyon.

For the ninth edition of FIMO228, Togo's international fashion festival, the event's founder Jacques Logoh is training the spotlight on a diverse cast of models. Larissa Solim Amelete, the face of this year's event, has succeeded in getting her family to support her modelling career, while Cathy Crussy, a TV producer, is in her 50s. Then there's Rebecca Attiogbé, who drives a forklift truck for a day job, and Alex Sef, the androgynous muse for Ethiopian label Afropian this season. FRANCE 24 went to meet them.

In a crime that shocked Brazil, 24-year-old Congolese refugee Moise Mugenyi Kabagambe was beaten to death in January. The worker at a beach kiosk in Rio de Janeiro had simply asked that his employers pay his overdue wages. His brutal xenophobic killing highlights the deeply rooted racism in Brazilian society. According to the latest Atlas of Violence, in 2019 in Brazil, 77% of homicide victims were Black.

With war raging in Ukraine, it's not easy to know how to speak about fashion – if at all. The best answer is to face the paradox. Thanks to the French Federation for Haute Couture and Fashion, Ukrainian designer Lilia Litovskaya is now safe in Paris. At Balenciaga, Demna Gvasalia, who fled a Kremlin-backed civil war in Georgia in 1993, offers up a hostile backdrop for his collection. Labels Marine Serrre, Atlein, Benmoyal and Germanier, meanwhile, are championing freedom of expression with their eco-friendly offerings.

The European Union warned consumers to stop using their clothes like throwaway items and said Wednesday that it plans to counter the polluting use of mass-market fast fashion.

This year’s Berlin Fashion Week, which was held in one of the city’s former electrical factories mid-March, was largely focused on the work of Jean Gritsfeldt. The Ukrainian fashion designer was unable to attend in person as he could not leave Kyiv due to the war. But activist movement Fashion Revolution managed to recreate key items of his collection from scratch. It was a powerful cross-border collaboration and a message of peace, which Berlin designers Esther Perbandt and Natacha Von Hirschhausen helped to spread.

The textile industry is the backbone of Pakistan's economy, accounting for 8.5 percent of its GDP. But it's also a source of major pollution, with untreated waste flowing into the groundwater and factories relying heavily on coal. Our correspondents report on the industry's impact in Faisalabad, Pakistan's main textile hub, where clothes are produced for the biggest fast fashion brands.

According to some estimates, the fashion industry emits as much as 3 billion metric tonnes of CO2 annually, contributing more to climate change than the aviation and shipping industries combined. Making matters worse, less than 1 percent of all clothing globally is recycled, creating a vicious cycle of mass consumption and waste. So how can companies and consumers diminish their impact on the planet? Livia Firth, co-founder of a consulting agency specialised in sustainability, joined us for Perspective.

The Lyon Fashion Film Festival is open to admissions from both art schools and brands. This year’s second edition of the event showcased a parade of fresh young talents who aren’t afraid to ruffle a few feathers. The winner of the designers' prize, Rémy Perrier, credits fashion with helping him to discover his true queer identity. Meanwhile, the collective 16:25 was awarded the Students' Prize for "Programmé.e", their mesmerising depiction of the drawn-out agony of the mourning process, juxtaposed with the frenetic pace of disposable fashion. FRANCE 24 takes a closer look.