Founder Of Lingerie Line For Black Women Crowned Entrepreneur Of The Year

Founder of lingerie line for black women crowned Fashion Entrepreneur of the Year

Posted on November 26, 2015 by THEYOUNGEMPIRE

FASHION ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR: Ade Hassan

THE FOUNDER of a nude lingerie line for black women has been named fashion entrepreneur of the year at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2015.

“Happy Thanksgiving to all our US lovelies,” Ade Hassan, founder of Nubian Skin, wrote on the company’s Instagram profile today (Nov 26). “Feeling incredibly grateful today.”

After only one year in business, Ade’s brainchild has been endorsed by the likes of Scandal star Kerry Washington and is stocked in five stores in the UK, two in Portugal and 21 stores in the US. It is also sold through nine websites online.

The 31-year-old got the idea for Nubian Skin while sitting at her desk at her former job, which she described as a “corporate environment”.

“Lingerie is the foundation of every woman’s wardrobe. Being able to have something that matches your skin tone helps you express yourself, and it makes you feel more comfortable in your skin – which is something that every woman should be able to feel,” Ade told XO Necole.

For Ade, it was the frustration of not finding lingerie and hosiery that matched her complexion that helped her discover that there was more to life than underwear that didn’t match her skin.

“I was working in a very corporate environment before Nubian Skin and there was always frustrations of either not finding panty hose that’s my colour or wearing shirts that were quite sheer, but not wanting to always wear a black camisole underneath,” Ade told XoNecole. “Or when you are in a business meeting and your strap is showing or you can tell that you have red bra under a white top; I didn’t want that, I wanted nude, but shops didn’t have my colour.”

AWARD-WINNING: Nubian Skin lingerie line

She explained: “I remember sitting at a desk and the idea just popped into my head, and I said ‘why don’t you just make it?’ So I sent a text to my friend and told her I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up and that was the beginning of my journey.”

She launched Nubian Skin, a self-funded venture, in October 2014, with her savings and financial help from family and friends, and her business has gone from strength to strength since.

“One of the things that we are very conscious of is growing at a healthy pace and not running before we can walk. Ideally, yes, in several years I would love, love, love to have a Nubian Skin flagship shop, but for the time being I want to really make sure we get the product right, and that we are getting what people want,” she told the p

See original article here:  http://theyoungempire.com/2015/11/26/founder-of-lingerie-line-for-black-women-crowned-fashion-entrepreneur-of-the-year/