Ade Hassan
Founder & Director • Nubian Skin
Ade Hassan is a fashion designer and entrepreneur, who started Nubian Skin, a company with nude-toned clothing and undergarments for darker skin tones.
Photo by Cass Michael Photography
I could not find skin-toned lingerie or hose that actually matched my skin, so I decided to create it.
Nubian Skin is a brand of lingerie and hosiery that provides skin-tone undergarments for women of color. Founder Ade Hassan and her friends were frustrated by the lack of nude clothing and undergarments for people of color. Ade devoted herself to creating new colors for garments by talking to cosmetic professionals who specialize in the skin tones of women of color, comparing swatches from Pantone’s skin tone library, and testing the shades against herself and her friends.
Despite having no fashion experience outside of some sewing classes and growing up in a fashion-forward family, Ade knew she needed an excellent product and a beautiful website to have a successful brand. With these goals in mind, Ade obtained a developer, a factory, and materials and hired an expert in intimate apparel manufacturing to help her navigate the complex world of the clothing industry. With her consultant’s guidance, she started attending trade shows and having face-to-face meetings with manufacturers to learn the business.
Photo by Cass Michael Photography
The Reality Of Reaching Your Goal
Ade Hassan is the founder of Nubian Skin, a clothing company that produces nude-toned lingerie and hosiery for women of color. In this TedX Talk, Ade shares how she became inspired to create inclusive undergarments after facing difficulty finding nude-toned options that actually matched her skin tone. Since starting the company, Nubian Skin has appeared in multiple fashion magazines, supplied the wardrobes of West End and Broadway productions; and provided the underpinnings for the Beyoncé Formation Tour.
Video produced by TEDx Peckham
In October 2014, Ade and her team launched the Nubian Skin website and posted a promotional photoshoot to Instagram. At the time, their account had only 50 followers; four weeks later, it had over 20,000. Today they’re at 163k and counting. Among the many successes of the brand, Nubian Skin was honored by the Queen of England. Ade and her team created the undergarments worn by Beyoncé and her dancers for the singer’s 2016 Formation concert tour. Nubian Skin has redefined the meaning of “nude,” expanding it beyond its assumed white supremacy by offering various skin tone options for bras, underwear, hosiery, and shoes.
Photo by Israel Peters for Xero
Photo by Cass Michael Photography
Ade Hassan is a fashion designer and entrepreneur aiming to bring inclusivity to the undergarment industry. Born in the United Kingdom, she and her family moved around a lot, living in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and the United States at different points throughout her life. Growing up in a Nigerian family, Ade cites her early interest in patterns and color as having been sparked by the importance of fashion in her culture.
She wanted to be a businesswoman like her mom at an early age—specifically, to own and manage her own business. In her undergraduate studies at Duke University, Ade focused on the workings of economies in developing countries. Later, she earned a master’s degree in economic development at the SOAS University of London. After graduation, Ade gained experience working in banking and research and then decided to take a year off to study sewing and fashion in Paris.
We took beautiful images showing different women, comfortable in their own skin, having fun, and wearing nude lingerie that matched their different skin tones. That combination had an emotional impact on people, especially Black and Brown women who could look at it and say ‘I can see myself.’
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