Designer Identity Crisis
With all that is going on with the current interest in the Black Lives Matter movement my business has been on display and very active by clients who in the past were not clients. ImaniLia Fashions is being seen by a whole new crop of people and I love it but in this time it has forced me to access and reassess who my customer is, who I am marketing to and if you can believe it who we are as a brand. With all the assessments being made it has me thinking about who I am as a designer and how I have been promoting and marketing my brand over the years. In this blog post I’m going to talk about the identity crisis I’ve gone through as a designer and brand over the past 10+years. A crisis I wasn’t even aware of until recently.
It’s a gift and a curse knowing what you want to do from age 10. On the upside you have laser focus, on the down side you have laser focus. Also just like we have all grown and evolved since we were 10 years old so have I and so has this brand. I have changed the name at least 3 times before ImaniLia Fashions stuck in 2009. After the name stuck in 2009 I had to figure out how to promote the brand. Although most things you see on my website for sale are African print that’s not how it always was nor how it always will be. I am an evening wear (known to my clients as event wear) designer so a lot of my custom work is taffeta, satin, lace, etc. Only a small fraction is African print although my clients are African American mostly. Just take a look at my collections here.
During the past 11 years of business there have been many photo shoots, four & a half collections and A LOT of business consultants. As a designer and seamstress I want to make what looks good, fits well, and makes people feel good; because I knew custom clothing doesn't come inexpensively. Truth be told, I wanted a diverse clientele, but I was confused about who I was talking to when it came to marketing (and honestly still am at times). I wanted to be successful and part of that was going where the money is. Visually the money seemingly was mostly with white people. You’d be hard pressed to find an affluent black person that wasn’t a rapper in 2009, I wasn't sure what a socialite was at the time but I didn't knew there we're black ones. Even today, they're few and far in between, influencers weren't a thing just overall when you saw accessible money they weren't black people. With this conundrum on my hands, I knew who wasn't my customer so I said ”ok Imani, how do I get white people into my clothes?” I naturally thought Black people would follow. It’s worth mentioning that there was interest from black people but once family was maxed out from buying most people were either interested with no where to go OR they wanted a discount that I wasn’t giving. One business consultant I worked with in 2010 told me “ In order to achieve success you need to have white models in your clothes because then white women can easily see themselves in the clothing.” Furthermore he said “black people are used to seeing white people in clothing that they wear ie. ads, store displays and other things so they will buy your clothing either way. On the other hand, it's harder for white women to see themselves in something modeled by a black woman.” I was astonished by his gaul but then I thought about it and as a black woman, I could attest to the fact that most of the brands I bought clothes from more often than not had white models and I thought nothing of it. Think about it.. When did the fashion industry get so inclusive? Not only with black models but with models of all sizes and only this year models of different gender identities. Anyway, I went with what this successful white man was telling me and did a lot of photo shoots with mostly white models and a sprinkle of black models. I was in the midst of an identity crisis and didn’t even know it. (We can discuss why I hired a white male business consultant at another time).
So, here we are in 2020 in the midst of global health pandemic and before March my business was primarily in person and although my online store was open I only had about 70 orders in three years. I was online but no one was looking. Then COVID happened/is happening (because it’s not over) and people are looking at my website because I was one of the 1st small businesses to offer face masks AND at an affordable rate. I began to see who my true ready to wear market was/is. As I took on a virtual assistant to help with the workload she said to me “The homepage of your website does not align with who your customer seems to be and who you even are as a person Imani. You need to re brand. Let’s change these pictures on your website.” I said ”You’re right but since we can’t have a photo shoot right now look at all the pics I have and pick some for me please.”She did and slowly the look of the home page has been changing to reflect me as a person, my brand, and my key customers. I also have added clothing back to my website because clothing is my 1st love and I want to show people that I offer more than face-masks.
If you were to ask me if I've always been unapologetically Black, in all honesty I’d have to say, “no.” I've hid my blackness even in the finest ways to garner who and what I thought might bring me success. Everyone isn’t so confident in their blackness and comfortable in saying that success will come if you just be the truest form of yourself. Unfortunately we have been conditioned to see and think Otherwise, Sometimes, unbeknownst to us. I'm in my 30’s now and am a wife and mother as well as a business owner and I'm confident that my work will now speak for me. My models will reflect my clients and myself. Additionally, whomever decides to patronize my business will do so knowing I'm doing my part in making people look and feel their best.
This journey I’ve been on plays into the fact that black people are so comfortable asslimating into white culture but it doesn’t always go the same way. Overall I am thankful for EVERY client I have of EVERY race but I now know and understand that they need to meet me where I am and accept this brand from a black woman as it is!! Race and identity are subjects that are often shyed away from in any and every group but if we don’t recognize are faults, short comings, and lack of confidence we cannot remedy these matters.
