WENDY ASUMADU

How would you say that your journey within self-discovery and self-expression through fashion and beauty has been?

It has been very interesting. I was never really into makeup before, I never wore makeup as a kid, I was never really interested. I actually thought that I was going to be a fashion designer, bought Vogue, followed Fashion Week – I just loved the design part of it. It wasn't until my sister, who used to do my makeup, told me that she wouldn’t do it anymore and I needed to experiment myself. I used my experiences within fine art which I have a degree in and I guess it manifested and transformed into some kind of ‘beauty–art’ and through learning how to do makeup I learned that I could be my own canvas. The collages, colours and paint I used to work within my fine arts practice I instead started using on myself.

One of your Instagram posts says “The process can be the look too’. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

I don’t really plan looks, I just lay out my materials and just play around. I usually start with brush strokes or lines or zigzags and as soon as I start creating I get an idea. I prefer that process and even if I do plan a look it never comes out the way I planned it. I believe that if you don’t plan too much you discover something new and that’s where innovation comes in.

Yes, but I think that escapism also is about identity. Not everyone can go out and live their life like they want to and by posting their beauty looks on social media allows them to be their true self until they feel ready and safe to be who they want to be – that’s the whole idea of striving for authenticity. Posting selfies is a part of your process towards true personal autonomy. I follow a lot of people, in particular from the LGBTQ community, which is very important to me, and a lot of them are posting beauty pictures as escapism until they feel safe to be who they are.

You recently started Editorialblk – an Instagram dedicated to black artists. Tell me about your account and how has the reaction in the industry been?

It all started before the lockdown in March where I felt really passionate about making collaboration for dark/deeper skin black creative artists because I felt that there wasn’t enough representation out there. But then the uprising of the Black Lives Matter movement happened and the murder of George Floyd and we saw all that blasted all over the internet and we felt that it wasn’t the right time to post it, so we pushed it back. And it was after that I realised that we needed to create visibility for black editorial and Avantgarde artists In general. Black artistry is beautiful and innovative and it’s being mimicked and used in so many trends but it doesn't get the credit for it. So I started researching and found more artists and we did the first launch and there was a massive response. All of a sudden I saw so many black artists use the hashtag [#editorialblk] and I thought – let’s make the editorialblk–page a repost–account where we every week do a launch of black artists and give them visibility. I did in no way think it would end up like this – that a lot of people would follow and support it and that brands would follow it and even reach out to the artists. I’ve gotten messages saying ‘I was going to give up on Instagram – no one was following me, no one was seeing me and now I feel like I’m being seen’ and that’s exactly what the page is for. But I don’t want it to be just a repost–page, I want it to be a real platform where I can connect black artists with brands using the contacts I have and the contacts I will gain in the future. I want it to be a support system and a mentorship program and I feel and hope that in six months’ time it can be something really beautiful and helpful for black creatives.

It’s almost like you have your own agency going on?

Until recently I only thought I was doing my bit, but now I’ve realized that this is actually working and the page is helping black people being heard and that does create a community because black people are being silenced, there’s a big issue with diversity in workplaces for example and to see that people see this as a community is amazing. And to see that people trust in what I say is humbling too because I’m still learning but I’m in a great position where I still have a long way to go. I still feel like I have to be in a good place where I can really support people, but doing my own but it does feel like an agency and I would love for Editorial BLK to become like a CIC-business, where every profit we make or funding we get would be used to give back to the community. And I would love to collaborate with more brands in the future because I think a lot of brands seem genuine and they want to do more for the black creative community but I do think that they need someone to push them. So rather than an agency, it’s an international community.

How can we catalyst change?

Change comes from learning and one thing that I’ve realized is that black people are tired of talking about the issues regarding racism, colorism and prejudice and I think change comes through non-black people learning and educating themselves to understand where we’re coming from. You can never truly empathize but you can understand that the injustices towards black people are wrong. And if you don’t understand that I can’t help you and quite frankly, I don’t think you’re even human if you don't understand that. Once people educate themselves that allows them to be able to help and to fight with us. People don’t take it really seriously when it’s just black people talking about it but people take it seriously when there are non-black people talking about it because then people seem to understand that this is a real issue. And what I loved about Black Live Matters–marches in London and all around the world is that we saw no black people. Black people are tired of talking about the same things every day, it’s exhausting and it makes us really unhappy and you have to think about the mental health issue as well. So I think changing the system comes from people coming together and supporting each other and actively making change. There’s no point in saying ‘racism is wrong’ and then do nothing about it. We don’t need theatrics, we’re tired and we want you to actually help us. For example, my Instagram page has grown a lot recently but if you’re just following me that’s just performative, real things happen when you engage with the content and understand that it’s important to amplify black voices. So when I or other black people post – do you share it, do you comment on it? It’s important to not be just performative. And as a non-black person, you have to always check yourself and think ‘am I being performative, am I doing enough to help black people?’, that’s the most important thing.