AphroChic is one of the leading content creators in interior design and global decor. The blog was founded by power couple Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason, who started the hobby-turned-design-powerhouse. We got the chance to speak with the founders of AphroChic — check out the interview below:
BLAVITY: AphroChic has grown immensely since its inception, what are key elements of AphroChic’s sustainable success?
APHROCHIC: When we started AphroChic, we were focused on engaging an audience that had not been engaged before about home decor — African-American women. In fact, when we started in 2007, the blogosphere was still very new. There were home decor blogs popping up all over, but none that engaged a diverse audience. That’s the void we wanted to fill when we started the site. The engagement of African-American women continues to be the cornerstone of our brand, and guides us through all of the projects that we do. In addition to the audience that we speak to, we also have a very clear focus on our brand story. Whether it’s writing a book, designing an interior, or writing on the blog, everything we do falls under the exploration of modern design and culture.
Finally, it really is all about authentic engagement. When we started in 2007, the world of social media was so much smaller. It was extremely important for us to have a clear and authentic voice on design to interact with our audience. The blog was our only form of communication, so letting our point of view shine through, without the world of Instagram, Pinterest, Periscope and more that we have today, was extremely important. Now, eight years later, we continue that engagement, whether it’s our content on Instagram that gives a unique lens into our lives as designers or the pins that we share daily of modern and soulful spaces. In every way that we connect with our audience, that authenticity is key. This is who we are. You will not meet Bryan and Jeanine on the street and discover that we’re completely different people from who you see online. This is us, what we love to do, and it’s been key to our success.
B: AphroChic’s new collection by Guildery is nothing short of amazing. Describe your creative process, how do you go from idea to execution?
AC: Thank you so much! We recently spoke at Harvard’s first Black in Design conference and presented the new collection there as part of our presentation on interior design. It was really amazing to see the response to it and to also define what we do that’s so distinctive as designers. We are trying to hone in on what African-American design is as a company, and how we can convey it in our products. To this point, a lot of African-American design has been primarily Afrocentric, using elements of various African cultures — be it masks, fabric patterns or artwork, and to highlight our African heritage. What makes AphroChic different is that we try to focus on what is uniquely African-American. That question of what African-American design is really guided our process for each design in the new collection. We have new designs like Broom that celebrates the beautiful “Jumping The Broom” tradition that was once our only way of formalizing African-American unions. And some of our signature patterns like Silhouette, a throwback to the 1960s Black Power Movement, are back in new color ways. We celebrate history with patterns like the Moor-inspired star pattern Darro, and the diaspora with Sisters, which is a tribute to the women of Rwanda, but the image is of women we all recognize wherever in the diaspora we happen to be from.
It’s exciting for us to see the response from the community. We hear from African-American women and girls who get so excited when they see the new products, like our headboards and ottomans. They’ve never seen furnishings before where they are reflected in the design — and neither have we. That’s one of the statements that we hope to solve with our collection — that African-Americans deserve to be able to see ourselves and our cultural heritage in the pieces that we bring home in the same ways that anyone else would naturally expect to.
Our creative process is very organic. We literally work together all day, every day, coming up with new concepts, designs and ideas for new patterns. We look up the histories of patterns, like our Ndop pattern that is a modern version of Cameroonian Ndop cloth. We study a lot, and then play with scale, color, and think about the application of each design to furnishings and accessories. It’s a very collaborative process, and in the end we come up with something that truly fits what we’re trying to convey in a design.
We take a lot of field trips to local museums here in Brooklyn, galleries, shows. It’s important as designers to be inspired on a constant basis. You never know when what you see will inspire innovation on your part.
B: What advice would you give to black designers who are breaking into the interior design and decor world?
AC: Think outside the box as much as possible. Don’t get inside the box, don’t play with the box, don’t even look at the box; just go right past it and cultivate your own vision. That’s what people want when they’re looking to hire you as a designer — a unique vision and perspective. If you have a great eye and aesthetic, then you have a good foundation. We definitely encourage young designers in particular to build upon that foundation by taking unconventional courses to help them be successful. Study business, philosophy, politics, science — things that encourage your analytical mind as well. Designers are amazing at the creative aspect, but when you’re running a design company you also have to remember that it’s a business, and having a knack for problem-solving, analytical thinking and business strategy is also extremely important to be successful in this industry.
B: When did you decide to prioritize your creativity with AphroChic, instead of letting it remain a side project? What hardships did you encounter when making this decision?
AC: At the end of 2010, when AphroChic was still a side hustle, we decided to leave San Francisco and move back home to Philadelphia. It was a realization that we just weren’t happy where we were. The plan was to stick with our experience and what we had degrees in (Jeanine was a lawyer, and Bryan studying African Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley). But when we got home, we saw an opportunity to embrace what we were passionate about — building AphroChic into a brand. We agreed to go six months with AphroChic full-time and to see how things went. If all else failed, we could always go back to law and academia. After the first six months, things looked good, we could afford to pay our rent, etc. We gave it another six months, and another, and now it’s been five years and we’re still going strong.
There are always challenges when you step away from what we call the “blueprint.” You know, the life everyone tells you [you] should have that’s written down somewhere in that big book we’re all supposed to be reading. You should be a lawyer, have kids by now, live in the suburbs, etc. But we took a risk and decided to have the life that we want, not the life we should have, and in five years we have never looked back, only forward in cultivating this brand.
The moment we committed to AphroChic doors opened, and we took every opportunity that showed up in front of us. That helped us grow. We rarely say no to opportunities, and we are always looking at multi-faceted ways to build our brand. That’s what’s moved us from being bloggers, to textile designers, to authors and now interior designers. We’re always up for the challenges. Every one is its own learning curve and they all have their own growing pains, but they’re part of the journey of any career path. They’re what helps you grow.
B: How does the city you live in influence/affect you?
AC: Wherever we’ve gone, Philly has always been home. Now we’re in Brooklyn and Brooklyn is home too. It’s interesting. We have lived all over the country — Philly, Washington D.C., San Francisco, but when we came to Brooklyn last year it felt as if we had always lived here. There is no place like Brooklyn, especially as a black designer. The experience here has been completely different. The ability to walk down the street and literally bump into black creatives who are doing some absolutely spectacular projects… You can walk into a coffee shop or cafe and meet up with black creatives and find ways to collaborate on a project in an instant. It’s truly a special place. Living here inspired our web series Homes of Brooklyn. We just finished taping our third episode that will go live in the New Year. We just kept running into so many great people — fashion designers, artists, illustrators, that we wanted to interview them and learn about the spaces that foster their creativity as well. Brooklyn is so inspirational. It continues to motivate our work as designers and authors. We’re always thinking about how we can tell the black creative story here in the borough.
B: What keeps you motivated?
AC: Love. It’s cheesy, we know, but we’ve been together for almost 20 years. We met on a college tour to FAMU in the Philadelphia airport in our teens. Nineteen years later and counting, and everything that AphroChic is is a reflection of our love for each other. This is our baby, our creation. It’s equal parts Bryan and Jeanine with a focus on design from an intellectual and social framework. Beyond beautiful spaces and products, one of the major things that we hope to achieve with this brand is to showcase the diversity and beauty of black lives and homes. It’s this bigger statement that motivates us to keep building this brand. There’s always a new way to tell the story about design from an African-American perspective and that’s what we’re here to do.
