When the cosmetic brand’s best-selling lipstick at a fashion fair, Chocolate Raspberry, disappeared from make-up counters, many black women despaired. The vibrant magenta shade looks great against brown skin tones and was a staple of vanity and bathroom cabinets for decades until the company went bankrupt in 2018.
But one night in June, the pigment was reintroduced, along with several other cosmetics, at Manhattan’s Century Association, where a group of wealthy women gathered to celebrate the relaunch of the iconic brand.
Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage, who was in attendance, said she felt connected to her first fashion inspirations, her mother and grandmother, when she did makeup on the red carpet of this year’s Tony Awards. rice field.
“When I was growing up, fashion fairs loomed large over my household,” she said in an email. It was the first makeup I tried on in front of
Fashion Fair is one of the most influential black-owned businesses to make a recent comeback. They thrived in his 20th century, targeting and serving black consumers when other brands refused, but many of these companies have managed to stay competitive and take their business to the next level. After struggling to bring it into the era, it fell apart. Now, some Black businesswomen are restarting, interested in continuing the legacy of those businesses rather than starting a new brand from scratch. In other cases, black entrepreneurs have founded companies inspired by well-known white-owned businesses that fraudulently used images of black people to sell their products.
The old brand has received some updates. Many of the new owners have changed aspects of product packaging, marketing and production to relaunch companies such as Fashion Fair and Madame by Madame CJ Walker. But they intend to honor the company’s original mission, which was very much about building wealth in the black community.
Desirée Rogers, former CEO of Johnson Publishing, which oversaw major black magazines Ebony and Jet, and Cheryl Mayberry-McKissack, the company’s former COO and president of digital, said Johnson will be hosting a fashion fair in 2019. I bought a fashion fair when I had to sell my A brand after declaring bankruptcy. Fashion fairs had a name, but supply relaunched the brand for a new generation of women who didn’t grow up watching their mothers and grandmothers use their products during a pandemic that disrupted her chain. was difficult.
There was also a crash course from the modern consumer. Not only did they expect the same complementary colors from the Black women they remember, but they were also mindful of product ingredients and the company’s investment in the Black community. Magazine ads, stylish in-store saleswomen, traveling shows. Customers may now meet your brand on social media, as your brand has become known on social media.
Eunice Johnson founded the company in 1973 as a white-owned cosmetics company targeting African-Americans focused on skin lightening and failed to match the range of skin tones of black women. Sometimes it catered to black women’s makeup needs. Rogers and her Mayberry-McKissack said they want to continue serving these customers in addition to spotlighting and supporting other members of the community. They mentor black business women in the beauty industry and join other black-owned brands in their campaigns. A black woman makes up her 80% of the workforce.
according to McKinsey researchIn 2020, Black-founded and Black-owned brands accounted for 2.5% of beauty industry revenue in 2021, while Black consumers accounted for 11.1% of beauty spending, or $6.6 billion.
“Cheryl and I are trying to close the gap between rich and poor,” Rogers said. “And beauty is certainly an area where we are underestimated for the amount of money we spend in that industry.”
Black businesses have long been a staple and source of pride in African-American communities. Jim Crow laws severely limit black employment opportunities, and African Americans often favor white businesses. was forbidden to Black entrepreneurship was born out of necessity, not just as a way to make a living but also to shop safely as a black person. In the early 1900s, historian Juliet EK Walker wrote,golden age of black business’” Black-owned businesses boomed, reaching record numbers across the country.
It was during this time that Madame CJ Walker launched her famous hair care brand. The company made her one of the nation’s first black female billionaires, but in 1981 her business slowed.
In 2013, Sundial Brands founder Richelieu Dennis purchased the Madam CJ Walker trademark. After Unilever acquired his Sundial in 2017, Madam worked with his Walmart to revive the line. It was originally intended to assist blacks with scalp hygiene at a time when many suffered from hair loss due to illness and poor living conditions.
“People always ask me, ‘Do you have an original formula?’ But what Madame Walker did in 1906 was revolutionary for 1906. We want to be revolutionary for now.”
To emphasize her point, Ms. Bandles posted Instagram photos of Ms. Walker driving her signature Wonderful Hair Grower and her 1912 Waverley Electric. “She’s driving a Tesla now!” Mr. Bandles said with a laugh. Another example of her update, she said, is removing petroleum-derived oils from the brand’s hair and scalp treatments.
But the company’s new iteration doesn’t stray far from Walker’s mission. Sundial CEO Cara Sabin says Walker’s goal is not only to be successful, but also to empower other black women to become self-reliant by training as stylists and salespeople. said. Walker sold hair care products, but she “realized that what women needed was education and financial independence,” says Bandles.
In 2018, Richelieu Dennis, who helped found Sundial and owns Essence, a magazine for black women, purchased Walker’s former residence, Villa Lewaro, in Irvington, New York. While in-person programming is still on hold due to the pandemic, Dennis will continue to donate to her New Her Voice fund, which she launched in 2020, and give women entrepreneurs of color her one chance. promised a billion dollars.
“It’s what they call community commerce, where we’re benefiting from the community, so we’re giving back to the community,” Bandles said. “This is very similar to Madam Walker’s own idea of giving back, in that you are profiting because the community is supporting you. So you have to give something back to it.” there is.”
Others have attempted to correct historical mistakes made by white-owned companies that profited from using black domestics in their logos and signage. Rapper and businessman Percy Miller responded to this trend by developing Uncle P’s line of pancake mixes and rice.
“When I was a kid, my grandmother would always tell me, ‘Buy these products because they belong to us,'” recalls Miller. But “I’m getting older and I’m starting to realize that Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben are models and that revenue from these brands isn’t going back to helping communities and their families. It was just a mockery.” .
Historically, when white-owned businesses wanted to emphasize the quality of their food and services, they often did so using black imagery, with African-Americans being valued only as cooks, housekeepers, and farmers. It used racist stereotypes.
Uncle Ben’s rice and Aunt Jemima’s breakfast food are prime examples of this tactic. Because of their expertise in rice making and pancakes, real-life Frank Brown and Nancy Green were hired to represent the product, but their skills were not recognized and they were not rewarded financially. (In 2020, Quaker Oats announced they would change their packaging, dropping the Aunt Jemima name, and Uncle Ben’s to Ben’s Originals.
“These are family brands that they have built and passed down from generation to generation, and we never got a piece of it,” Miller said, adding, “I wanted to change that narrative. ” added.
Miller sources his rice from Ghana and employs farmers there. A portion of his profits fund programs for low-income children and seniors in New Orleans and St. Louis. And he uses his own image (picture of himself with his sunglasses) to sell his products.
“We can definitely build wealth that will last generations,” he said. “And who knows if any of these companies will hit and turn into multi-billion dollar businesses once we get into the game?”
Fashion Fair’s Rogers believes reviving long-standing black-owned businesses is just as important as starting new ones. She said it would have been “shameful” for her and Mayberry McKissack not to try to revive the makeup brand. Ebony also made a comeback last year.
“One of the very important things is to keep our culture alive, especially in America,” said Rogers. “We need to do a little better to maintain our tradition and the incredible brand that has served us so well.”