Episode Details

This week Nicole is joined by Annabelle Mazu, the founder of Luxurious lingerie brand Ihuoma. Ihuoma celebrates the beauty of women of colour, with exquisite, sensuous lingerie with the aim to enrich, empower, and be bold about your sensuality and the possibilities that arise from living your true self, unapologetically! Find out the challenges Annabelle faced and what advice she would give an aspiring entrepreneur. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Annabelle found that the lingerie brands that were aimed at women of colour were in the mid and lower price ranges. She saw this gap in the market and decided to start Ihuoma. She felt that black women are typically shown that they’re not deserving of luxury, Annabelle wanted to say the exact opposite with her brand.  
• Annabelle wanted to create unique pieces that are considered works of art. She didn’t want something that seems generic, she wanted the people who wear Ihuoma to feel like goddesses.
• Ihuoma launched during the pandemic, which might have actually been a bonus with people wanting something nice and unique for themselves after having a pretty rubbish time stuck at home. 
• Ihuoma had a huge boost when it was featured on Beyonce’s stylist’s blog. They went from 400 followers to 2400 overnight. 
• The biggest challenge Annabelle faced was self belief, believing that she could do it and believing that someone else would look at the brand and say yes I think this can succeed. 
• Annabelle couldn’t have started up without a Virgin Startup Loan, which she is very thankful for as she found it next to impossible to get a loan from a bank. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘I was working with all these great brands and realised there was something missing’ 

‘This is going to launch when it’s meant to launch’ 

‘You have to deal with imposter syndrome on a day to day basis’ 

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com

www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach

ihuoma.co/

www.instagram.com/by.ihuoma

ABOUT THE GUEST

IHUOMA is a luxury lingerie brand that celebrates the beauty of the modern Black Woman. The aim is to enrich and empower women of colour to find their divine femininity, be bold about their sensuality and the possibilities that arise from living their true self, unapologetically!

The collections explore themes of self-love, empowerment and sensuality with the ultimate desire to show women how incredible they are in their skin by complimenting and enhancing the inherent beauty of all black women. Created by a black woman, IHUOMA, at its core, is a luxury brand aimed at Black Women, but not exclusive to her.  The collections are for all women, wanting to connect to their spirit, their divine feminine

ABOUT THE HOST

Buying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years working for companies such as Primark, M&S, Debenhams and Asda, sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. 

Nicole now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and small to medium sized business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses as The Buyer And Retail Coach (TM) 

Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme:  thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscales