TALKS with Erika Massaquoi
5 Min. Read | Video + Interview | A.M.
Summary
In the latest in our series of TALKS, we cover topics including fashion, art & design, entrepreneurship, storytelling, brand marketing, education, reclaiming social narratives, pivoting a business in times of crisis, creating space for family, giving back to community, and more.
Key Notes
To be a creative professional in today’s world, you need to rely on your own efforts.
Clear brand messaging and transparency is key to connecting with customers.
We are witnessing the end of physical retail and boutique experiences as we know it, and must shift to digital strategies and experiences.
Embracing new media and technologies is critical to effective brand positioning.
Maintaining a small footprint and prioritizing agility will allow you to take risks and navigate change successfully.
Many are over-leveraged. Reduce product offerings into micro-collections based upon projected user demand and utility.
Ankara & Indigo
Dr. Erika Massaquoi is the Founder and CEO of The Oula Company based in Seattle, Washington. But beyond that, she is a multi-hyphenate visual artist with a passion for art and design. She's worked as a curator for the Whitney Museum of American Art; a digital storyteller for Oxygen under the leadership of founder Geraldine Laybourne; became Assistant Dean of the School of Art & Design at FIT; and has curated exhibitions for Frye Art Museum, Seattle Art Museum, and MIT among her many other accomplishments.
But her first love was and remains fashion.
"I have a huge collection of textiles from all over the world, but specifically West African textiles, Ankara print as well as indigo. My husband—whom I married 11 years ago in August—is from Sierra Leone in West Africa. And when I married into the family, I started wearing a lot more Ankara, but usually for special occasions, weddings, birthdays, those types of celebrations. And I really wanted to get to a place where I could wear the fabric everyday. It reminded me of the type of clothing and tunics that my mother used to wear when I was a little girl. The whole Black is Beautiful movement with these beautiful, bright, African-print tunics. And I wanted to get back to a place where we could just wear it everyday and celebrate Black joy."
Indigo prints courtesy Dr. Massaquoi’s personal archive.
The decision to start a fashion business was an easy one, though it was built upon the foundation of her previous and seemingly disparate experiences. Through time and mastery, these experiences hybridized and funneled into what Erika characterizes as the essential DNA of her brand.
"I look at young kids now and their dexterity with a variety of media was something I was doing 25 years ago, but it wasn't really celebrated. I remember a teacher telling me that it was better to hone in and focus on one area instead of being a jack-of-all-trades. And now, for me as an entrepreneur, it's been really rewarding and great for me to be a hybrid and jack-of-all-trades. I sort of take my interests and go really deep—I'm like a sponge. And everything informs the way that I live, from the food that I eat to the yoga that I practice, the books that I read. I don't see any sort of beginning or ending. So I don't just say I’m honing in on fashion. I'm honing in on a lifestyle, a narrative, a way of living, and a way of being. And the way that's expressing itself now is with The Oula Company."
But it was not without hardship. Erika bootstrapped her business with funds from her curatorial jobs until she could transition into her role with Oula full-time. And then she discovered another key barrier to entry—storytelling.
"When it comes to finding people to represent your line, people not really having the knowledge to be able to sell Oula as effectively as I could—that was an issue. And then I, as a result, had to start doing pop-ups myself because people want to know my story, and often times, the story of the fabrics."
“I wanted to get back to a place where we could just wear it everyday and celebrate Black joy.”
And if finding people to correctly represent her brand were not enough, Erika found herself in the very center of the narrative of American Fashion, in all its monumental and homogeneous legacy, surrounded by people that upheld it.
"I remember I had one person who worked in PR who was like, Well, when people think of an American brand, they think of Ralph Lauren or Michael Kors, which was just total nonsense to me. Why do they get to own the narrative of what 'American' is? It's just crazy, all these preconceived notions. So, I find myself being able to reframe those narratives all the time, particularly as an African-American from the South—from Miami to be specific. I grew up in a multicultural, really vibrant town. And then spent 20 years in New York, and doing a lot of international travel. I understood what fashion was, particularly to Black and Brown folks, intimately, in a way that I felt wasn't being articulated in high fashion."
Erika's instincts were keen and her drive to succeed tacit. By this time, she was married with a young child while still taking curatorial work. But bi-vocational entrepreneurship was a challenge she would meet head-on, as she had with her previous successes in academia in pursuit of her Ph.D. And she happened to be in the right city, at the right time, ready to make the right connections.
"People talk about the 'Seattle Freeze' socially. That's a real thing. But the 'Seattle Freeze' when it comes to business does not exist. Everybody took my phone call. And I would have breakfast, coffee, lunch, pick up my daughter from preschool, drop her off with the nanny, and I would have drinks. And I did that for six weeks, five days a week. Everybody took my phone call and everybody was willing to give good advice. So I think that this is a great place to be an entrepreneur."
THE SHIFT IN RED AND BLUE SCRIPT Imported wax textile
THE POET IN PINK AND MINT GEOMETRIC
LA TUNIC IN WAX PRINT
"I believe that tomorrow is not promised. There's a great line that Rosalind Russell says in Auntie Mame, and she's like, "Live! Live! Live!" That's what I always tell my friends, to live, live, live. Because I just think that tomorrow is not promised—obviously from this current pandemic that we're in. But I also lost both my parents before I was 35 years old, and that transformed me in many ways. I think that being resilient is probably my biggest gift. I'm super resilient and have a lot of wherewithal. But I also believe that I've been able to take certain chances in my career because of a lack of fear. Also, because I don't want to be wondering down the line, What if I would have done that? What if I would have tried this? I didn't want to have any regrets.”
“I think it’s just important to live, live, live!”
Visit The Oula Company website
Follow The Oula Company on Instagram
Learn more about Erika’s curation and design
Connect with Erika on LinkedIn
Topics referenced in the video:
Ms. Magazine
Style with Elsa Klensch
Nordstrom closes 16 full-line stores
Jeffery closures in Nordstrom Inc. restructuring
Rosalind Russell “Life is a banquet” from Auntie Mame
In our new series called TALKS, we reflect on the fashion industry in the Pacific Northwest. We'll look at where it has been, where it is now, and how we can move forward in a unique, small, yet financially important and growing market.
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