Ade Hassan answered the prayers of women of colour around the world when she created Nubian Skin in 2014; a nude underwear line to match their skin tone. We caught up with her to discuss what it's like to be an entrepreneur, the mastermind behind Beyoncé's underwear, and talking knickers with David Cameron…
Our motto is: "empowering women, embracing our colour." It's letting women of colour know that their skin is beautiful.
Frustrated. But I never felt insecure. I've always been happy with my skin, so I wanted to be part of the solution.
It's great that women of colour have choice. Although it is interesting that big brands, who have been established for years, finally realised that women of colour need nude underwear too.
One high is the love we receive from customers and doing all the underwear for Beyoncé's Formation tour was unbelievable, but in the next breath I could be talking to suppliers who let me down with an order.
It was a huge shock! I got an email from her stylist and I thought it was a scam! However, I asked my friends in the fashion industry about the person who emailed me, and they all said: "Ade, this is real! You need to respond!"
I was in my office. I looked on her website and saw images of Beyoncé and her dancers wearing sheer white body suits and it looked as though they were wearing nude underneath. I emailed the stylist about the images and typed: "is this what I think it is?" He responded: "100%."
Lupita Nyong'o, Viola Davis and Taraji P Henson.
Recently I've been having a love affair with the lace bra and I wear them in all the shades.
That was fascinating! He asked me: "What do you do?" So I said I create underwear for women of colour. He's a politician, so he's well versed in all situations and he quickly said: "that sounds really interesting!"
You need to believe it 150%. It will be harder than you can imagine. If you're going to bed at 1am in the morning and waking up at 4am, you need 100% committed.
I'm excited to say that we are launching our range of fuller bust bras sizes in the Summer. We have much coming up, so keep your eyes peeled!
