The social and environmental effects of the fashion industry are disturbingly clear, and stats show that garment labourers struggle to make a living wage both at home and overseas.
But UK-based African clothing brand Cultureville shows how fashion can have a truly positive and far-reaching social influence.
Co-founders and sisters Adeola Adelakun and Ronke Jane sell their ethically made and contemporary designs with their African creators in mind while helping Black British youngsters dream big in business.
pan-African sat down with Adeola to discover more about her and her sister’s trailblazing journey from humble beginnings in Nigeria’s bustling markets to an award-winning African fashion brand with a real social impact.
Stay tuned to find out more about Cultureville.
You started Cultureville from scratch after success in the corporate world. Can you tell us about the journey so far?
We started while we were working in the corporate field – I was born in Nigeria but then studied at law school in the UK, and I went back to Nigeria to work on a youth programme after graduating. While I was looking for gifts for friends and family, I came across beautiful, vibrant fabrics being sold in local markets!
I was president of the African and Caribbean Society at university in Aberdeen, and one thing we often experienced was that if we had an event or a play to showcase our culture, it was always a real struggle to find authentic clothes that represented us, and there wasn’t a store we could go into to buy them. So when I started seeing these prints in Nigeria, I thought, ‘Whoa, my friends and I have never had access to this!’ – even though they might have grown up in England with parents from West African countries. So the idea came from the need to connect with our culture.
We started by putting a few of our pieces on Depop, and we got a lot of interest from the US, the UK, and Italy. So we thought ‘okay, people are interested!’ From there, we created our website and sold our clothing on a shoestring budget while I was working as a corporate lawyer and my sister was working as a software tester and business analyst, and we invested into the business with our salaries. We did this up to the point where we felt like we were struggling to balance everything, and two years ago, we decided to take the leap and go full-time.
You have been awarded Greater Manchester’s Young Trader of the Year (2019), you have appeared on the BBC One Show, in Hello! magazine, and you were the first African print brand to be represented at Manchester’s Christmas Markets.
What does it mean to you to represent and showcase African culture and traditions through fashion from the northwest of England?
It’s amazing! We want young people growing up to be proud of their heritage and to have access to it because we felt like we didn’t have that growing up, so when we set up at Manchester’s Christmas Markets, or when we go into schools during Black History Month to hold a fashion show where the kids get dressed in our African clothes, we’re just so proud, because these kids now have something that they can identify with.
When I was younger, for example, I was given clothing by visiting aunties, but I didn’t have much control over the design choices. What we’re trying to do is merge traditional African prints with modern fashion, and being able to represent that has been incredible. We get to be something that young people can look up to and feel proud of their culture by wearing.
Often, they are impressed by the fact that our small business was started by two young Black women, and they ask “You own this? Are you sure you own this? Who else is investing in you?” It helps them see with their own eyes that the sky is the limit with regards to what they can achieve.
What do you hope your legacy will be?
We want to create something that has a social impact, and when things get tough in business as they often do, what keeps us going is knowing that we’re having an impact on other people, particularly on the artisans, traders, and tailors that we work with.
It’s important to us that we’re working with talented women from low-income backgrounds, who don’t normally have many opportunities come their way. One of our Lagos-based managers was in a very tough spot financially when she started working with us, and to know we’ve been able to positively influence her life and her family is what keeps us going.
We also work with the Moss Side-based KYSO Project, where we hold business sessions for local teenagers and young people. The founder Kemoy Carlton Walker is head of Year 7 in a school in Gorton, and he guides us as to how best to work with kids, and how to present to them about business and culture. We get to inspire and empower Black youngsters to dream big and provide positive business role models, which is one of the most rewarding aspects of what we do.
We hope our legacy will be to widen that impact, to invest in this community where our items and culture both come from, as well as for young people based in England.
Have you had any experiences since launching the business that you’ve learned and grown from?
Running a family business is interesting! Working alongside my sister has presented its own set of challenges because we’re together all the time, and we don’t come from a business background. Our law and IT skills have been useful in terms of running it, but they’re not traditional business skills, so we’ve had to learn from YouTube about how to be the shipping manager, the HR manager, and doing tons of other things that we never expected to be learning about.
I’m also thankful for the business accelerator programmes and workshops in the northwest that have been helpful, for example through NatWest and Google, and we’ve been proactive with going out there and gaining the knowledge ourselves that we need to steer our business in the right direction. It’s not been easy, and it’s been a huge learning curve, but we’ve grown from it.
Your favourite wax print design is the Adetayo fabric – what is the most exciting or your favourite part of sourcing new materials for your designs?
Oooh! It’s just such an exciting process – our managers go into the markets and they speak to different suppliers, take pictures and videos so that we in Manchester can see what the trends are in Abuja and Lagos; we have some team members based in Accra and Kumasi in Ghana too. A big part of what attracted me into doing this was wandering around the markets and seeing for myself how gorgeous the prints are, and I wanted more people to have this who maybe didn’t have it growing up like I didn’t. That process is very exciting!
The culture in Nigeria is to make an item as opposed to going to a store and buying it. If you’re going to a traditional Nigerian wedding, for example, you would go to the markets. There might be a specific fabric for that wedding that is referred to as aso-ebi, which means ‘clothing for the family’, which would typically be given to you, and then you’d go and find a tailor to take your measurements and make something in a design that you’ve personally chosen. It’s the complete opposite here in the UK, where you just go and choose something from the store.
Do you have a staple favourite Cultureville piece?
From our Eden collection, the Adetayo African Print Belted Kaftan Dress is so comfortable and easy to wear, and it was our best selling item from 2021. I also have it in the Akala fabric.
Who is your style icon?
Zendaya’s style is timeless. She’s beautiful, versatile, carries herself well, and whatever she wears she looks incredible! From having cornrows, mixing it up and doing something different, she doesn’t lose who she is even though she is a high-fashion icon. She doesn’t reject where she’s come from, and she knows how to blend things well.
What is your 2022 vision for Cultureville?
Our vision is to have our stock in more stores. We currently have stock at Prior Shop in Bristol, which works with independent, eco-friendly sustainable brands, and it’s been great for us because we’re not doing all the marketing ourselves, and customers can walk in and try our items on. Merging our online stock into a physical brick-and-mortar experience with more similar independent stores that align with our sustainable and social-impact ethos is our next big goal.
When we think about why we created Cultureville, we wanted to be able to walk down the street into a store that stocks our clothing, which is still the goal. We’ll have to wait and see!
Lastly, what is your favourite thing about being African?
There are so many good things, how do I choose?! The culture is incredible – I’m a Yoruba girl from Ogbomosho in Oyo state, and I just love the clothes, the food, the music… I can’t pick just one thing, haha!
I love it when I travel back to Nigeria. The people are so welcoming and friendly, and full of laughter too, and we try to make that a part of who we are at Cultureville, and how we relate to our customers by bringing that essence of culture to them.
The food, the music, and the people are the best things about being African.
To start 2022 in style and treat yourself to Cultureville’s fabulous African print clothing and accessories, visit cultureville.co.uk
