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There is so much available out there  in the personal development space and if you are not careful, you will be taking a new course and following a new guru or coach every week. And so, this week, you will get a glimpse into what makes a good personal development curriculum from my guest, Naketa Thigpen, Founder and CEO of Thigpro Balance & Relationship Management Institute.  

She is on a mission to build stronger families and she encourages her clients (power couples and potent individuals) to be “intentionally selfish” while pursuing balance in their life. 

Naketa’s story is inspiring. She used her personal adversity to propel herself into a career of service. An overachiever by nature and survivor of horrors no child should go through, she can empathize with her clients no matter what they are dealing with in different aspects of their lives. She’s also a healer, who not only works with private clients but serves her community as a minister.

I hope you enjoy this episode and that you will feel that transformation and a better life, however you envision that, is possible for you, no matter where you are in your healing or life or professional journey.

Thank you for sharing your story so generously Naketa 🤎🤍 

 LINKS AND MENTIONS

Balance Boldly – Naketa’s Podcast for Ambitious Women - http://thigpro.com/

Shades and Layers Squad – Join us for a fortnightly dose of discussions and news from the studio - https://shadesandlayers.beehiiv.com/

A GIFT FOR YOU

Learn More about Otrium and their mission to sell all unsold clothing and get a 20% discount when you shop brands on their platform. Use the code SHADES20 at checkout to enjoy this offer.

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The idea to create Black Beauty Collective was planted 10 years ago and quickly became a project that was dear to founder and CEO, Leslie Roberson’s heart. The growing ownership and access disparities within the beauty industry posed a deep concern for her. For example, despite spending 9 times more than any other beauty product consumers, black ownership in the space only accounts for 2,5% . Creating a collective to ensure broader impact is Leslie’s solution to this deep-rooted issue.

In today’s conversation, Leslie takes us on a journey of how the idea came to her in the first place, how she’s gone about recruiting the founders who will be tenants at her flagship store, her business model AND her vision for the collective.

Leslie has a corporate career in Talent Acquisition, this is her second venture into entrepreneurship and she’s also a US military veteran. She will tell us how she’s leveraging all these aspects of her background to make the collective a success. 

Enjoy the episode 💜

A GIFT FOR YOU

Learn More about Otrium and their mission to sell all unsold clothing and get a 20% discount when you shop brands on their platform. Use the code SHADES20 at checkout to enjoy this offer.

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Today we conclude our fashion conversations by visiting, Changing Narratives  in Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique. 

Changing Narratives is the love child of Mozambican business and creative partners, Wacy Zacarias and Djamila DeSousa. These Mozambican textile and accessirues designers are on a mission to preserve traditional Mozambican and more broadly, African craft and knowledge through their brands, Karingana Textiles and Woogui. 

 Wacy and Djamila started working together in 2015, back when wax print was still the most visible representation of African textile. And as we’ve previously mentioned, these fabrics are, ironically, not even African-made or owned. 

In this context, these two women took inspiration from their local natural environment, existing production systems, local traditional designs and stories and decided to do things differently. 

In this conversation, we focus on their journey as pioneers in textile design, the sustainable fashion movement, we discuss one of their projects working with refugees in northern Mozambique, they also give their take on what “Made In Africa” means for fashion labels and designers.

Enjoy the episode 💜💜💜

LINKS AND MENTIONS

Made51 - Karingana Textiles is the 1st Mozambican Local Social Enterprise to be part of the platform MADE51, a platform by UNHCR that puts refugee-made products into the global market.

Capulana/Kapulana - versatile traditional cloth used in Mozambique and other parts of Southern Africa as either a skirt or baby carrier. Apart from practical uses, it is also a status symbol as mentioned in the article linked here.

Taibo Bacar  - famous Mozambican designer who introduced Wacy and Djamila when they were forging their careers.

Ambiente - massive annual international consumer goods trade show in Germany.

Maison & Object - international decor and design marketplace

A GIFT FOR YOU

Otrium is  digital platform that’s on a mission to sell all unsold clothing. What that means for you, is that you can buy end of season clothes from top brands, at prices that suit your wallet and the clothes don’t end up in a landfill. Shades and Layers listeners get a 20% discount at checkout when using the code SHADES20.  Go to otrium.com for top fashion brands at affordable prices and use the code SHADES20 at checkout 

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My guest today is Lydia Endora, Founder, Creative Designer and Buyer at her self-titled fashion label. 

The seeds of a love for fashion were planted in Lydia’s heart at a very young age by her grandmother. Combined with education and a work ethic modeled by her mother, she has tapped into her creative spirit and skills to find her own corner in the athleisure space of the fashion market. 

 With a focus on quality and obsession with the customer, Lydia has created a fashion line that features multifunctional pieces for the busy woman to seamlessly switch between activities during her day.  

 She says that this is a discerning and conscious fashion buyer who does not want to be forced to throw away clothes after a few cycles in the washing machine. And so, Lydia puts a lot of thought into who her customer is, right down to the activities she’s engaged in as she goes about her day. 

 In addition to her process, we talk about hopes and dreams, listening to the whispers of your life and following your gut.

 We talk about  some of the challenges that smaller fashion houses encounter while trying to implement ethical business practices and of course, we talk about Lydia’s personal story.

LINKS AND MENTIONS

 Some of the fashion designers and exciting fashion leaders and spaces that Lydia mentions:

Christopher John Rogers

Brandon Maxwell 

Telfar 

Brandince Daniel 

Harlem's Fashion Row – An exclusively black business bricks and mortar fashion marketplace in Harlem

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A GIFT FOR YOU 🥳🎁 - Otrium is a digital marketplace on a mission to sell all unsold clothes from top fashion brand that you love. Learn more about them on their website and Get 20% off at checkout when you use the code "SHADES 20"

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SAVING WALLETS AND LANDFILLS

We are continuing with our focus on fashion and this week my guest is  Zuhairah Washington, President and COO of Otrium, a Dutch-born  end to end marketplace that she calls, the best kept secret in fashion. 

Otrium is a digital platform where you can buy end of season clothing at accessible prices. 

What does that mean? 

All those clothes that brands were unable to sell for whatever reason, can be discretely uploaded onto the platform and given a second chance at finding their way to being bought and used, rather than ending up in a landfill or a burning pile. 

This of course should give you a hint that sustainability is one of the topics I discussed with Zuhairah. It is one of many huge problems associated with fashion, but things are starting to move in the right direction, and she will explain a bit more in our interview.  

Zuhairah started her career in private equity, she has founded her own tech company, had a stint at Uber as well as at Expedia and now here she is telling us about how she’s leading  Otrium’s expansion into the US market.

LINKS AND MENTIONS

Use the code SHADES20 and get 20% off at checkout when shopping on Otrium.com 

Uber
TJ Maxx
Nordstrom
Expedia

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This week, we have nothing but love, and you will find out why as you listen to the interview with, my guest today, Nthatuoa Makhapa. She is the founder and creative director of the knitwear brand, Nthatuoa Crafts where everything is made by hand and inspired by her home country of Lesotho.

Launched in 2019, the brand is growing from strength to strength along with its founder who will, for example,  be joining a cohort of other young African leaders for the Mandela Washington fellowship in Washington DC this coming June. Nthatuoa is also the recipient of a grant from the African Development Fund Business Plan Competition she entered in 2022.

Along with these achievements, Nthatuoa shares with us,  her passion for knitwear and preserving the ancient craft of crocheting and other artisanal skills. She talks about how she has become an environmental and social justice advocate. And how she moved from being a hobbyist to full-time entrepreneur who also lends her crafting skills to other designers.

Love and Storytelling are at the core of the Nthatuoa brand, and it stands to reason, as Nthatuoa means ‘beloved’ or ‘loved one’ in Sesotho.

Thank you for sharing your story @nthatuoa_com 🧡🧡🧡

LINKS AND MENTIONS

• Cape Town Boutique MeMeMe 
• ReWoven -  Cape Town-based Textile Rcycling company
• Lukhanyo Mdingi - South African fashion designer and 2021 LVMH Fashion Prize winner 
• Munkus - South African premium fashion brand
• Mandela Washington Fellowship - Six week leadership training for Sub-Saharan African young leaders
• African Development Bank 

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Noite Rose is an affordable luxury loungewear brand that was founded during the pandemic by digital marketing and branding professional, Diandra Harvin. After graduating with a degree in Arts and Fashion Merchandising and (later earning an MBA), she worked in the fashion industry, but  found herself in a toxic environment that pushed her out of the industry for several years. 

Fast forward to 2021 when we were all going loopy with cabin fever, gaining weight and doing some soul searching, Diandra has an aha moment and gets inspired to follow return to her first love. 

The outcome was a brand that focuses on comfort infused with romance. Noite rose is for women who like looking good while lounging or caring for themselves. Diandra brings these women together once in a while under the La Femme Familia umbrella, and they uplift each other while chasing their dreams and goals. 

May this episode inspire you to chart your own path in whatever field you choose to follow! 

 LINKS AND MENTIONS

Nordstrom

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Welcome to Season 6!

Shades and Layers is here with a brand new season, featuring fashion and textile designers, as well as other black women crafters and makers shaping culture across the world. In between there will be episodes from beauty, hair and personal care entrepreneurs.

The first guest for the season is South Africa's quintessential multi-hyphenate, Maria McCloy. She and I are former business partners and our friendship dates way back to university days. In this conversation, we discuss her path to being a designer of  iconic African-influenced fashion essentials in her hometown, Johannesburg. How she juggles fashion with being a sought after entertainment industry publicist and filling dance floors with her choice of vintage and modern African tunes when she deejays.

We discuss many culture related topics like wax print being synonymous with African fashion, cultural appropriation, infrastructure limitations and opportunities, and the many other dynamics that influence the trajectory of the cultural industries of the African continent.

It's a conversation of the ages and not to be missed. 

MENTIONS AND LINKS IN THIS EPISODE

Black Rage Productions - co-founded by Dzino, Maria McCloy and Kutloano Skosana in the late 90s, they documented South Africa's urban culture through television shows, an online magazine and through the independent record label, Outrageous Records.

As a publicist, Maria McCloy represents many clients in the cultural space, including  legendary South African musicians  Thandiswa Mazwai , Nakhane, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, as well as Zimbabwean artist and activist Kudzanai Chiurai.

South African media heavyweights Tim Horwood and Sylvester Chauke

Maria McCloy's Tedx Talk

South African veteran fashion designers, Marianne Fassler, Ephraim Molingoana, David Tlale and Thula Sindi

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Orion Brown, founder and CEO of the multicultural lifestyle brand BlackTravelBox. They make travel-size hair and skincare for black and other travelers of color. Their mission is to bring ease to the travel experience.  Heaven knows how many times so many have had their business or even holiday trips ruined by hotel shampoos and lotions. 

Orion is a frequent traveler herself and the idea to start BlackTravelBox came to her after being inconvenienced too many times by the act of packing toiletries and also being in hotel rooms where you can’t even look at the products, let alone use them. There’s also the issue of getting your toiletries trashed by airport security. And so she started talking to other black travelers, who told her how they were playing chemist in their hotel and Airbnb bathrooms and kitchens. To Orion, the solution was not easy but it was offensively simple: make on-the-go products for black travelers.

Having worked for 18 years in corporate and gaining expertise in brand strategy in the FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) sector, she combined this experience with research and personal travel experience to strike out on her own and build her unique brand. 

Our conversation is not only about the products she makes, but also strategic choices, sustainability in a notoriously unsustainable industry and standing out in a very noisy market. 

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At this time of year we are all looking at our bank balances and regretting whatever questionable spending decisions we made over the festive season. And so, we are talking about money today with my guest, Vangile Makwakwa, founder and wealth coach at Wealthy Money and co-founder of Property Magician Stokvel. 

 Vangile Makwakwa graduated with a finance degree from the prestigious University of Cape Town in her home country South Africa and an MBA from Boston in the USA.  Even after this education and increased earning power, she still found that she was having financial troubles.It took a shift in mindset and a whole healing journey to change her financial behavior patterns, become debt free and create a thriving work-from-anywhere business. 

Today, she tells us about this journey, the body of work she’s built through helping clients over the past 15 years and where she finds herself today. We also speak about connecting the dots between manifestation, hard work, privilege, poverty and systemic barriers to building wealth. 

 As always, the wisdom and take-aways are revealed through the story...

LINKS

Wealthy Money Website - https://www.wealthy-money.com/
Vangile's e-book, "Heart, Mind and Money" - https://www.wealthy-money.com/book
Property Magician Podcast  

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