Blind, African-Born French Designer Hopes To Make It Big In Hollywood

It is hard enough for most established Frenchmen and women to earn a passing glance of consideration from the elite and fiercely competitive French fashion industry.

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And if you are a poor, blind African immigrant, that passing glance that even a native-born French designer would appreciate can instantly narrow to a suspicious side-eye.

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Mason Ewing (pictured in Los Angeles) says he has experienced many of those side-eyes since he stepped foot on French soil some 10 years ago with runway dreams of designing the hottest dresses, blouses and designer jeans for the world’s premiere models.

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But he has recently uprooted his Parisian runway dreams and replanted them in American soil. Hollywood to be exact. The U.S. has traditionally been viewed as the “Land Of Opportunity.” But Ewing, through his interpreter, Renato Salvatori, told NewsOne that America has proven to be more like the “Land Of Equality” for him.

“I have been in the media quite often in France, but that has not opened any doors for me,” Ewing said during a phone interview. “When I asked for sponsorships and partnerships, they tell me, “Oh, we don’t have money. But I find that in the United States, it doesn’t matter if you Black, White Chinese. In France, if you are Black, it is more difficult than if you are a (White) Frenchman or woman.”

During his time in southern California, Ewing has been working on a television series that is an extension of his fashion goals. Here is a rundown of the show, as reported by the Los Angeles Times:

Since then (2006), Ewing has produced a collection of T-shirts that feature Baby Madison, a multi-ethnic cartoon figure, in different settings. The infant has dark skin, blue eyes and a tuft of blond hair that “represents tolerance and love for everyone,” he said. The shirts’ raised Braille lettering tells him the garment’s color and what Madison image is printed on it.

Ewing used the cartoon character to branch out into video animation with “The Adventures of Madison.” He hopes to parlay that into two TV series that feature live actors.

Test scenes for the teen drama “Eryna Bella” have been shot in South Los Angeles’ Vermont Square neighborhood, where Ewing rents a small house. “It’s about high school beauty queens competing for the attention of the campus alpha male,” he said.

His proposed teen comedy series is called “Mickey Boom.”