Natalie Manima of Bespoke Binny on validation, African prints and supporting Black businesses
At the start of this year, Natalie Manima, 34, decided to take a step back from her job as a Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist and pledged to dedicate more time as Creative Director of her growing eclectic homeware brand, Bespoke Binny, which offers modern African print homeware from lampshades to cushions. Like many other Black-owned businesses in recent weeks, Natalie saw sales surge at Bespoke Binny, as social media was flooded with posts about supporting businesses in the Black community. For Natalie, the tags, likes and shares translated into sales – and it's been monumental.
'I didn’t start out with the intention of starting a business, that was never the plan. I was working as a CBT therapist in the NHS – it’s quite a demanding job and I didn’t really have any hobbies outside of work so I decided that in terms of work-life balance I should get a hobby. Something I always wanted to do was to learn how to sew, so I started taking evening sewing classes after work once a week. Even though it was a fashion course, I was using my sewing skills to make things for my own home.
My friends and family really liked what I was making and tried to encourage me to open an Etsy shop and go to some craft fairs. Initially, I wasn’t really keen on the idea but I thought, what harm can it do. So I did it. I got one or two sales a month, it was nothing, but when I did get sales it was nice to know that someone else liked what I had made.
It’s just grown organically since then and that was in 2013. About three years ago, I was getting regular sales and thinking that maybe this has got legs and I need to start taking it more seriously and treating it like a business, and so I invested in photography.
In January this year I decided that I was going to try it for a year full-time and see how it went. I’ve never taken a salary from it before so I just used to invest everything I’d made back into buying the fabrics and photography and things like that. It’s a pledge that I made but I definitely didn't see this coming, so I think we can fairly say now that it is full-time.
Bespoke speaks for itself – I still make bespoke but probably a bit less now, but at the beginning it was very bespoke. Binny is actually a play on one of my middle names. My mum's family are originally from Ghana and I have a Ghanaian name which is Obenewa, and my mum in particular always used to shorten it to Binny, so it’s like a nickname.
In late 2015 I was stocked in the British Library when they had a West Africa exhibition for about six months. I think out of all the brands in the shop I sold the most and they kept coming back to me to restock. I wasn’t expecting it. It was lovely and validation I guess that it could sell, and it could sell to lots of different people from lots of different backgrounds.
I am on Jamii, a directory of Black-owned businesses and I’ve been on there for years. When the Black Lives Matter movement started, people had discovered the website and then found brands to promote on social media posts.
I was just getting this massive influx of followers and sales and it took me about four or five days to realise that these posts had gone viral. I probably gained an extra 12,000 followers on Instagram, and for me, I’ve had the equivalent of six months’ worth of sales in about two weeks. I’m not going to complain but it’s been a bit crazy.
It’s real validation for me because I’ve previously tried to get into retail and I’ve been told that 'tribal isn’t in at the moment' which, if you know the history of African prints, they’re made in Holland so they’re actually made in Europe for the most part. I’ve seen so many brands that have the same colour combinations, sometimes even really similar patterns, and they’re accepted but somehow I’m automatically thrust into some kind of tribal category.
Bespoke Binny is no different to so many other things that you already see out there. I know my fabrics are African prints but at the end of the day they’re just bright colours and it can appeal to a really wide audience. I think sometimes you just get pigeonholed. I don’t even think it’s done intentionally, but it is done.
I hope to continue to build and grow and I hope people become more open-minded, not just for as long as it’s trending, but on a more permanent basis, and to realise that there is work to be done. Not everyone’s going to get it right, and that’s fine, but I just want to see real enforceable action to make change. I would hate for this to be short term – then it just doesn’t feel very sincere.
I live in a new-build two-bedroom flat in London with my husband and our two-year-old daughter. In most of the rooms I’ve kept the walls white and then each room has a feature wall. I had a stencil made that’s based on the pattern of mudcloth, and in my bedroom, living room and my daughter’s bedroom I’ve used the same stencil but in different colours as an accent wall, and then accessorised with some of my products. It’s very much an Afro-inspired feel in here but it’s also fairly white with a touch of Scandi at the same time. I’m going to make up a word and call it Afro Scandi!
Lockdown has made me appreciate my home a lot more. I think some people live in some really cramped conditions. I have two balconies but no garden, but I’m really, really grateful for the balcony. I’ve never really used it much before but I spent a lot more time out there than I ever have. My two-year-old daughter loves the outdoors and at the beginning of lockdown when you could only go out once a day that was really hard. I bought grass carpet and covered both of my balconies in that and bought outdoor pillows too – I tried to make it as fun for her as possible.
I’ve been trying to use spaces we haven’t used before and use things in new ways. We have our daughter and we’re both working from home, so there's been a lot of juggling around and using rooms in ways that we maybe hadn’t before. That’s been a lesson for all of us in the home about how we use our space and enjoy it.
For the full Bespoke Binny collection shop via the website bespokebinny.com. You can also shop via Etsy. Follow Natalie on Instagram @Bespokebinny and Facebook at Bespokebinny
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