Ade Hassan
Founder, Nubian Skin
Nubian Skin Founder, Ade Hassan
Berry, Cinnamon, Caramel and Café au Lait are hues of nude and bespoke colors we’ve become familiar with thanks to fashion brand, Nubian Skin. At its helm is financier turned fashion designer, Ade Hassan, whose keen foresight along with a social media campaign that went viral, led Nubian Skin to become the first fashion brand to offer a line of lingerie in plenty of brown shades. It’s no wonder, then, that Ade has cemented herself as a pioneer in the world of fashion. She has been widely regarded as an innovator, redefining the term ‘nude’ by making it more inclusive and consequentially driving a major shift in the fashion industry. The recipient of countless awards and accolades, Ade credits those closest to her and her incessant drive for bringing her concept to life, as propelling her forward.
Read on to learn more about her journey.
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Family as a pillar
My first supporters, in every way, have been my family. The first two people I told [about Nubian Skin] were my sister and my mum. They loved the concept from the beginning and were instrumental in applying that healthy pressure, [asking] ‘When is it going to happen?’. [Nubian Skin] is an independent business. I put all of my savings into it. My parents and siblings invested in it as well. So really, the business is built on the basis of my family. Both of my parents are entrepreneurs. My family has been an incredible support to get the business off the ground, but also in terms of emotional support. They’ve seen all of the highs and lows. No [family member] is employed but as far as the support they’ve provided, it’s in every way a family business.
The funding dilemma
[Nubian Skin] is 100% family-owned and I’m the majority shareholder. We haven’t received any outside investment, which has its pros and cons. If I were to go back in time, I would have probably fundraised off the back of an idea. I can say that now in hindsight. To be fair though, I’m not sure it would’ve been the right decision ten years ago. But now, in the position that I am in, I see the role we’ve played and how we’ve changed the industry. Had we fundraised, we would’ve grown so much quicker. That being said, if I could go back in time and make that decision again, the business would probably look very different now and whether that’s a good decision or not, who knows. So, in some ways the journey would be a lot easier to have more capital to grease the wheels and scale quickly, but not having done that has allowed us to be in a position where I can be incredibly true to my mission and that is invaluable.
Making decisions because it’s the right thing to do
When we decided to partner with The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and [create UK’s first softies in a variety of skin tones] for women with breast cancer, that was an amazing opportunity. A doctor named Natalie Johnson, a Breast and Oncoplastic Surgeon at The Royal Marsden, realized that so many of her patients who were women of color were getting softies (a lightweight fabric prosthesis that women with breast cancer are often provided after a mastectomy to wear in their bra), which weren’t their color. Both Natalie and Sarah Adomah, Lead Breast Clinical Nurse Specialist at the hospital, realized this needed to change. They didn’t get anywhere with the suppliers that they were using, so they approached Nubian Skin to help. I had no idea if we could do this because we had never done prosthetics before but we were determined to make this happen. With funding from The Royal Marsden, we did a pilot project and it’s been phenomenal. Women of color should have the same standard of care and now, through the Trust, they’re able to have that. But that was an emotional decision [for me]. I have quite a few women in my family who have suffered from breast cancer, including one who had a mastectomy, so I wanted to be able to help. These are decisions that you can make when you have complete control over the business. It doesn’t have to be a commercial decision, it can be an emotional one because it’s the right thing to do.
The nature of being first
As I was conceptualizing Nubian Skin, I remember at the time wondering how [lingerie in bespoke nude tones specially developed for dark skin tones] did not exist already, and that I had to do it before anyone else did. I was driven by the excitement of wanting to do this and making sure it happened. It took me more than one year to develop the colors. When [Nubian Skin] launched and I saw how it resonated with so many women, I remember thinking ‘Oh my gosh, this is it! This is part of my purpose. I’m supposed to do this.’ Seeing the industry [begin to shift] and the conversation it opened up was amazing. Then, when I received an MBE from the late Queen for services in fashion, it felt like a recognition that we really did change the industry.
Recognizing signs
In 2012, I went to live in New York City for the summer and moved in with a really good friend from university. I told her about the [Nubian Skin] concept. I wasn’t telling many people about it at the time. She loved it. I later moved back to London and was very invested in my job at the time, so I kind of put Nubian Skin on the backburner. Then, in May 2013, I received a late birthday card. Across the front was written ‘It’s time to start living the life you’ve always imagined’ and on the inside there was a note from my friend that said ‘I love your idea, it’s so great. I can’t wait to see you on the cover of Forbes one day.’ That same evening, I registered the company name and started the registration and trademark process. Sometimes, things happen at just the right time.
Embracing the journey
My whole life, I’ve loved fashion. In 2009, I left my job. There were several things that I wanted to do in my life. One of them was to live in Paris and another was to do something in fashion. And so, I took time off. For the first six months, I took an intensive French class in London and also took some sewing and pattern cutting classes. I did all of that knowing that I wanted to move to Paris. By January 2010, I was living in Paris, taking an intensive business course in French at the Sorbonne and classes at Parsons Paris. It’s one of the moments I”m so proud of because I was living my dreams. I was renting this beautiful flat in Paris, sauntering off to my classes. That moment of being in an environment where I was fulfilling my creative needs really put a fire in me. I wanted to make it happen, I wanted to start a business. So that was a very meaningful time for me, pre-Nubian Skin.
A vision for your life
I remember when I was young, I felt that I was going to do things that were exciting and amazing. I felt that that’s what I was made for. Never in my wildest dreams, though, did I think that the things that have happened would happen. I felt like I was made for a lot and I was going to do a lot but would I have thought that Beyonce would wear my product? No. Would I have ever expected that I would receive an honor from the Queen? Absolutely not. Would I have expected to go viral on social media? I didn’t even know what that meant when I started Nubian Skin. All of the specific things, especially the public recognition, were events that I never expected or anticipated. The impact and the legacy-defining events have been things that I could have never imagined. When I first started the business my view of success was financially-related, but as my journey has progressed, I realize that what I’ve been given is something that money can’t buy. So that’s been the biggest surprise, because you view things one way but what you’re given isn’t exactly what you thought it would look like. It’s so much larger than what I expected.
Making it work
There are seasons and that’s really important to remember. Women in general sometimes feel a pressure to balance everything. And sometimes, that won’t happen. I had my son at the beginning of 2020, then COVID happened and a lockdown came six weeks later. It was me, my husband, and my baby stuck in London, outside for one hour a day. At the time, I was doing everything [for Nubian Skin] including operations, marketing, and social, all while caring for my newborn and trying to navigate motherhood. I went into survival mode but there wasn’t balance. It was hard and I had to deal with the ramifications of that a year later, when I came up for air. I had been running on adrenaline for 1.5 years, which wasn’t healthy. But I have an amazing team and my son is a little older, and it’s a new phase with its own challenges. And you know what, that’s life and you just have to figure it out and make it happen. You also need to figure out what your priorities are. There isn’t a magic solution. I think it’s just all about seasons. For me, my biggest support is having an incredibly supportive husband. And I’ve got an amazing team who want to see the business succeed as well as me personally.
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
