IN AWE OF SAMATA
Samata is an entrepreneur, style-guru, and social justice champion, and we were humbled to have her wear our Classic Diamond Medallion on this year’s Academy Awards Red Carpet. She uses fashion as a vehicle to support social causes, from sustainability to education and female empowerment. We are in AWE of her movement to make fashion positively impactful and thank her for all she does to support those in need.
IN HER WORDS
"Stop trying to blend in when you were born to stand out."
"Too many people overvalue what they’re not and undervalue what they are."
ABOUT SAMATA
Life & Style of SAMATA || A Conscious Fashion Melting Pot Founder || @The___Tribe Director || @RedCarpetGreenDress at Oscars® Designer || Future500 || Collabs with Swarovski, Lancôme, E!, Elle, The Huffington Post, Instyle & Refinery 29
MY STORY
My mission is to elevate socially-conscious fashion to the highest echelons of the style world in order to inspire a true shift in industry values. I am the Global Director for Suzy Amis Cameron’s Red Carpet Green Dress Campaign, showcasing sustainable fashion on the red carpet at the Oscars every year. My startup THE TRIBE is a global collective created for women to empower and celebrate each other. And I’m an advocate for Women for Women International, which provides practical and moral support for women survivors of war.
A few years back a house fire destroyed a great deal of my belongings. This hugely distressing moment served as a personal and professional reset: the literal rebuilding of my home became symbolic for the blossoming of my new career. I'm more focussed than ever on positively impacting the people and the planet around me through advocacy and nonprofit work.
FINDING YOUR VOICE
I am slowing getting closer to nailing my true, online voice. Until recently I didn’t realise this was even a disconnect that I had but 2016 has consistently been a year of growth (in a non-prescripted way kumbayah way) and discovering more about myself and how I can get in my own way sometimes. Namely, that I hold back a little too much of my personality when I post online. The posts I have felt the best about have always been the ones where I am not doing being reserved at all. However, in my defense, the reasons I have always been a little reserved online are legitimate, if not only because they are based on true feelings and real experiences.
I have always been told how young I look (I’m 5'2" and size 6 on average) and so I realised recently that that has manifested in me wanting to act older for such a long time, to being more reserved in public than I actually am when I am with my friends and family. All to be ‘taken seriously’. I even stopped smiling in pictures for a while because someone told me I looked too young when I smiled. That was a bye Felicia moment if ever I had one. The people who know me know that I am a loose canon, known to drive like a formula one race car driver, talk (quite/very) loudly whilst thinking I am whispering and not fearful of any obstacle between me and something I want. More and more I am finding ways to translate more of this me: into my content and it feels good. I do not agree that we are all online for validation, despite how it may seem when we look at the growing audience across our generations social media platforms. We are online because we all want someone to be a witness to our lives. That we existed, that the choices we made mattered and had impact, and that we manage to touch and inspire some other people along the way.
Another reason for my reservations is because it is a crowded party. I will never be that person who is the loudest person at the party, but I am always one of the most lively ones. This ‘group-shyness’ seems to have translated to the noisy and crowded world of online fashion blogs and social media. Am I funny enough? Is this smart enough? Is this interesting enough? Sod it – it’s me, and that will surely do?
This is where fashion comes in to save the day… to save me from my (sometimes) over analytical self! For me fashion has been a private and public, lively, bold, and always eye opening conversation with a silent collaborator – I know that I am not the only person who feels this way either! Anyone who loves fashion uses it in the way that I do – to share their personality and sides of who they are whilst gaining more and more confidence, and becoming more vocal about other sides of their personalities. May we continue to find ourselves and discover who we are through creative outlets.
SAMATA ON FASHION
Fashion has always been a second skin to me, I never understand when people say they aren’t involved in it – if you wear clothes, you are involved in it. Fashion is my most comfortable communicator, and working in a global industry that never sleeps, is 24/7 and is also full of the most exceptionally incredible people I have ever met, is simply the icing on the cake. Imagine that. I know that my website connects with people who enjoy the same passion for creativity through fashion that I do, and who use it as a medium to inspire and be inspired, and to run after their dreams until they overtake them.
CONNECT WITH SAMATA