Meet Mona Mohammed Ali, the founder of model and creative agency for people of colour, Fiiri
Born in Somalia, Mona had to flee the country as a young child. Now based in Stockholm, after spending her youth in the Nordics and her twenties in London, her agency stemmed from her desire to not only advocate for but protect creatives of colour in the industry. With a new role under her belt as the editor of diversity and inclusion at Vogue Scandinavia, the irrepressible Ali is a seasoned expert in navigating the pleasures and pitfalls of the industry – a spirit of transparency that she will be bringing to her Summit talks this week.
Photo: Kevin Castanheira
“I knew that I wanted to work in fashion since I was six or seven. In our culture, there's always uncles and aunts – not really uncles or aunts, they're just friends of the family. And they would say, ‘so what are you going to be when you grow up?’ They would always encourage the kids to do something great so that they can change Somalia when there is no war. All the kids would say, you know, engineers and doctors, but I was such a weird kid. This uncle came up to me and asked what I wanted to be. And I said, ‘I'm going to be a fashion designer.’ And he was like, ‘you’re going to be a seamstress?’, and I was like, ‘No! Fashion designer.’
I grew up in Sweden and Norway and later moved to London for university. At first, I didn’t want to come back to Scandinavia because of racism. I thought, if I come back, I need to do something that's going to change how my experience was when I lived here. Nobody really understands: they think, you're Black, so how can you be from Norway or Sweden? That was always in my head. We have so many different types of people here. It's as diverse as London and I really wanted to show the real face of Scandinavia through my work.
Coming back, I thought I had a pretty good CV – good experience, a BA in fashion and marketing. I was like, ‘easy peasy, I'm going to get a job!’ When I applied for agencies, I said: ‘I want to help push for more diversity. Why don't you hire a Black woman who understands issues POC models’ experience?’ The funny thing is, nobody replied to me. I couldn't get a job. So I had to start one of my own.
When I used to model, all the other models on set would get a whole new transformation. For me, with my afro, they would just fluff it up and touch it, and then be like, ‘looks great.’ Lazy! The worst part was that then this person then puts this on their portfolio, which makes it look like they're actually afro hair experts. Sometimes Black models won’t get booked because they have ‘difficult hair’. It’s so important to learn and educate yourself.
At Fiiri (“Look” in Somali), it's a safe space. You can talk about the issues you find in the industry and how to deal with them. If you have any insecurities about your skin colour, somebody else has probably had the same feeling. And If a model is trying to go down to sample size, I just say, ‘if your body isn't made that way, you shouldn't.’ You're not out there on your own, you can always reach out to somebody. With every single model, I just feel so proud that they would trust me to have this journey with and to dare to take a chance. I'm inspired by our community.”
– Mona M Ali
Mona is a speaker at The Soulfuls Summit. You can catch her on Tuesday 27 April at 16:00 CET.
We invite you to join The Soulfuls to get the encouragement, knowledge and community you need to unlock your potential. From Monday, April 26th, we’ll be hosting The Soulfuls Summit — a chance to enjoy talks from leading women within the industry from a diverse range of backgrounds. Sign up to become a member now and we’ll see you there! Questions? You can always email us at info@thesoulfuls.com
Written by Claire Marie Healy.