WATCH: FASHION HOUSE: Sherri McMullen & Tia Adeola Speak On Black Luxury

Writer &amp; Motivational Speaker Mikki Taylor sits down with Sherri McMullen &amp; Tia Adeola and speak about what black luxury is.

Transcript

00:00 When I think about black, black is synonymous with luxury, right?

00:06 So I don't necessarily separate the two.

00:10 When I started my business, McMullen, 16 years ago, I found that there was a void in the

00:16 market, right?

00:17 I had spent years doing buying with these big companies and corporations.

00:24 And I was like, I want to create something for myself.

00:26 In my city that I lived in, Oakland, and what I found is that these big box retailers did

00:34 not have black and brown designers on their shelf, right?

00:39 But we know that black designers and creatives exist because we create so much, right?

00:47 And so you find that so many designers are looking at black culture, black people, everything

00:54 that we do, and they're inspired by us.

00:58 And what I found is that they weren't necessarily giving us the credit that we deserve, and

01:05 also not the opportunities that we deserve.

01:08 So when I created McMullen, I said, this is going to be the place where I find designers

01:15 from all over the world that look like me and look like us.

01:20 And I'm going to create a space for us.

01:24 And that's, to me, is luxury, right?

01:28 That is, that's us.

01:30 Well, the luxury of even creating a space for us.

01:34 You know, it just amazes me how we are so seen, heard, and copied, and yet we remain

01:41 invisible.

01:43 That makes no sense to me.

01:44 So we have to change the conversation.

01:46 I'm always saying every day, we got to correct the narrative.

01:49 Yeah.

01:50 Tia, what about you?

01:51 What's your experience?

01:52 Sorry, guys, I'm a bit nervous.

01:53 Don't be nervous.

01:54 This is just us, right?

01:55 You all show her your love.

02:03 So I come from a country named Nigeria in Africa.

02:11 And you know, Africa is royalty.

02:16 And so growing up there, being raised on that, knowing that, when I had the opportunity to

02:22 enter into the Western world, so to speak, I wanted to sort of take my beliefs and spread

02:31 them.

02:34 So just with everything I do, from the setting, to the cost, to the apparel, everything just

02:45 for me represents black luxury.

02:48 So I'm creating my own black renaissance world and spreading it.

02:54 As Sherry mentioned, there aren't many like me.

02:59 And so I take this duty very seriously.

03:02 And I feel like I'm here to continue to push and knock on those doors and just try to open

03:09 up the space for the people coming after me.