My name is Ade Hassan and I’m the founder and director of Nubian Skin, a fashion line set up almost 3 years ago.

Nubian Skin was essentially born out of my frustration of not being able to find what I was looking for in shops. I knew I couldn’t be the only one who felt this way, so I decided to create it. The biggest initial challenge was finding a good quality manufacturer because a lot of the time they don’t want to work with smaller businesses and they have really high minimums. The most important challenge at the beginning was coming up with the colours – factories didn’t have the stock skin-tone colours, so this was something I had to come up with myself. I spent about a year researching and dying fabrics and ultimately dying a lot of hosiery with tea and coffee until I was happy with the hues.

As for my biggest achievements, there are so many I’m proud of. From when we were selected to provide underpinnings for Beyoncé’s Formation World Tour, to when Kerry Washington tweeted about us at the very start! But my biggest achievement so far is probably being named on the Queen’s birthday honours list to receive an MBE for services to fashion.

I love Lagos and I have so many wonderful childhood memories of this great city. My family and the very rich Lagos culture colour everything I do and believe. It’s a very entrepreneurial and competitive place. Everyone is hustling and most Lagosians are optimists, and I believe being surrounded by that definitely put the fire in me to want to be an entrepreneur. And let’s not forget the food!!! J

My goals for the next 5 – 10 years are endless. From making Nubian Skin a household name to setting up Nubian Skin Stores.