Céline Semaan Vernon

Céline Semaan began her career as a designer and community organizer around the open knowledge and access to information movement, working with Creative Commons to bring the open licensing to Montreal, Lebanon and Qatar. Founding Slow Factory in 2012 while living in Montreal quickly brought her to New York in 2013 to continue to expand the intersection of environmental sustainability, social good and fashion. Early Slow Factory collections paired design with social[3] or environmental[4][5] causes, leading her to coin the Slow Factory catch-phrase “Good for the Earth, Good for the People” in order to capture the essential idea that social and environmental justice are inextricably linked. This is a fundamental concept that she has continued to espouse, writing extensively about the link between environmental sustainability and structures of racism and colonialism[6].

As an artist and designer her work has been featured in the MOMA[7] and Cooper Hewitt[8] in New York, the de Young Museum in San Francisco[9].

Semaan is a recognized expert in the space of environmental and social justice[10]. She coined the term fashion activism, and has also worked extensively to raise awareness of other issues and causes around social and environmental justice by broadening her platform, such as bringing the word ”decolonize” to the pages of popular fashion magazines[11] or opening her influential Study Hall conference with not only a Native American Land Acknowledgement[12] but also a Labor Acknowledgement to recognize the history of forced African American labor.[13]

She is known for her activism in social justice causes especially around refugees,[14] cultural appropriation,[15][16] and Arab identity,[17] her advocacy for sustainable practices in fashion,[18] and her work as a digital and product designer.

Her work has been featured extensively in US and international media, including Vogue[19], The New York Times,[20] CNN,[21] Vanity Fair,[22] Fashionista,[23] Teen Vogue,[24] Scientific American,[25] Vice,[26] Business Insider,[27] Glamour[28] and WWD.[29]

Celine has written articles for many publications such as Refinery 29,[30] Elle Magazine,[31] The Cut,[32] Teen Vogue,[33] Mochni,[34] discussing fashion activism, environmental sustainability and human rights issues in fashion.

Celine is married to Colin Vernon[35] and lives with her with two children in Brooklyn, NY.