Sharmadean Reid

We are thrilled to spotlight our latest Marfa Muse, Sharmadean Reid MBE.

A leading female entrepreneur, Sharmadean is an advocate for gender equity and women’s empowerment and similarly to Marfa Stance, community is always central to Sharmadean’s work. Founder of WAH Nails and Beautystack, her most recent venture The Stack World, is a global community of mission driven women, providing engaging editorial content on business, culture and society.

Sharmadean wears the Parachute Bomber in amethyst with reverse bronze in size S-M, styling the amethyst side with our Aviator Collar in orange and the reverse bronze side with the Shearling Collar in pale pink.

#marfamuse

Tell us about your background

I am Jamaican-Indian and from Wolverhampton, I grew up there with my mum, but moved to London to study fashion.  I studied Fashion Communications at Central Saint Martins, but always had an entrepreneurial spirit I guess, always curious, which led me into styling, consultancy, film making and launching platforms Beauty Stack and The Stack World.  

Whilst studying I opened WAH Nails as a side project, but it really took off, and that was the start.  Since then, I have continued styling, writing, consulting and making films.  But WAH inspired me to trust that curiosity and I went on to launch BeautyStack and then came The Stack World, a community led media platform which supports female leaders and entrepreneurs. 

Talk us through your career journey so far

My career began working under stylist Nicola Formichetti and designer Kim Jones, and through them I was introduced to Jo-Ann Furniss, who was my Editor in Chief at Arena Homme Plus. She taught me so much – about commissioning, writing and honing my own taste and style, all while continuing to study.  After graduating, I was a consultant at Nike, and made a couple of films with Tyrone Lebon, whilst still styling. All of these encouraged that early curiosity, which led to WAH Nails, investing time into the tech world, to see if I could build technology, which led to Beauty Stack, but the pandemic hit and the stories of these women were what was important and what I cared about, so The Stack world was born. 

What are you most proud of?

I am most proud of never losing my curiosity, that despite it seeming weird to jump around different industries and careers, I have always explored that curiosity.

What advice do you have for fellow female entrepreneurs?

When you start your business, you’re so wide eyed and full of wonder. You act on your intuition; you feel passionately that this thing you have created should exist. You work at it with full force and then it gets to a point in the business where it becomes more about strategy and what your investors want. It becomes formalised and if you are a creative entrepreneur, it can feel like you are drowning. So, what I would advise is always maintain a child like sense of wonder about the thing that you are doing and what you are interested in because that is where you will maintain your passion. 

And if you seek that childlike sense of wonder you will start to think about those things that you loved to do as a child. A quote that is important to me right now is “How can I get back to those things I always love doing?”.

How do you style your Marfa Stance piece and why do you like the brand?

I think Marfa Stance is a highly creative brand with beautifully made product. The biggest thing for me is the way that Marfa Stance has collaborated with artisans, Marfa Stance is an industry pioneer and should be watched by other founders, entrepreneurs, and CEOs as a model on how to do good partnerships. I also always like to make sure I shop as much as possible from women led businesses.

For me there is something about a big baggy jean which makes me feel comfortable and effortless but still elegant at the same time. It seems low key pairing my Marfa Stance jacket with my baggy jeans but because the jacket also feels effortless, elegant and artisanal it feels natural to me to style my jacket with a jean and a ballet pump.

Read about our recent collaboration with The Quilters of Gee’s Bend and the Royal Academy via Sharmadean’s platform The Stack World.

Photographer: Amelia Allen