From TikToker Khaby Lame To Fashion’s Future: Meet The Forbes Under 30 Europe Members Transforming Art & Culture

hen he was an infant, Khabane (Khaby) Lame moved from Senegal to Chivasso, Italy with his family in pursuit of opportunity. Years later, Lame began his professional career working at a local factory. When the pandemic hit, he lost his job and had no idea what to do. He took to TikTok, and his wordless videos mocking overly complicated life hacks, like this one about creating storage space for a pot, quickly went viral. Today, he’s the second-most followed person on the social platform with 137 million followers. Couple his online fame with a major partnership with Hugo Boss earlier this year, and Lame was the obvious face of the 2022 Forbes Under 30 Europe Art & Culture list.

Our list highlights the most promising young people in the arts and other creative industries like fashion, modeling and theatrical performance across Europe. When crafting this list, we consider candidates’ backstories, spheres of influence and monetary success. We source candidates from our open online nominations page, as well as recommendations from Under 30 alumni, trusted sources and cultural and academic institutions. To be considered for this year’s list, all candidates had to be under the age of 30 as of May 3, 2022, and never before named to a 30 Under 30 list.

Candidates were then evaluated by a panel of judges featuring Anne-Sophie Pic, the most Michelin-starred woman chef in the world with nine stars for her restaurants in France and London; Guillaume (Saype) Legros, a French artist who creates monumental frescoes on grass and a 2019 Under 30 Europe alumni; and Amar Singh, a fellow 2019 Under 30 Europe alumni and founder of Amar Singh Gallery, which specializes in representing overlooked female artists. Of those named to the final list, more than half are women and 50% identify as people of color.

Leave a Comment