Underrepresented: Redefining African Fashion & Cultural Identity with Nuel Bans

Founder of Debonair Afrik, Nuel Bans discusses his journey as an underrepresented founder championing African fashion on the global stage. From launching a blog to landing a Vogue cover, Nuel shares the resilience required to transform passion into a multifaceted brand. He highlights the importance of entrepreneurship, the impact of representation in elevating African creatives, and the power of community in fostering collaboration, purpose, and authentic cultural storytelling. Nuel also opens up about the struggle of minority designers, including repeated exclusion from opportunities with LVMH, and how adversity has shaped his vision to expand into Paris and grow his international presence while supporting emerging designers across the diaspora.

Fashion with Purpose & Community- in this episode, we discuss:

• Evolving from blog to brand – How Debonair Afrique’s evolution reflects the potential of passion-led projects.
• How cultural identity fuels creativity – African craftsmanship and storytelling deserve global recognition.
• Shifting narratives – challenging outdated perceptions of Africa to highlight appreciation, value, and innovation.
• Representation at the top – Black designers and founders must be visible in leadership positions.
• Overcoming exclusion – turning missed opportunities into motivation to push boundaries internationally.

Connect with Nuel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmanuel-ekuban-b3749a150/

Visit Debonair Afrik: https://debonairafrik.com/

--------
The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at podcast@beyondform.io. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Transcript

UNKNOWN: 0:00

you

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Hello, I'm Beatrice Newman. We're doing something a little different for this series and I'll be your host instead of your usual host, Peter. This is the Underrepresented Entrepreneur Series. Being a black female founder myself, I know how hard it can be to do business in London. This series tells the stories of founders that have successfully navigated business where sometimes their backgrounds limit opportunities. Today I'm joined by Noel Ban, and Creative Director of Debner Afrique. We dive into his journey as a Black creative, building a career in his home country of Ghana, and how he's since gone on to export his talents to France. But as he shares the transition to France, and always been smooth.

SPEAKER_01: 0:47

One of the things like I said, the colonial mindset is that we always feel like we are not good enough. And recently I have wanted to do a partnership with one of the biggest global conglomerates in the world in fashion. One of my friends said to me that, well, don't waste your time. You're not going to do anything with a black person. Eventually what my friend said came to pass that, oh, so sorry, we can't do this yet.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08

Let's get this conversation underway with Noelle on today's episode of Venturing Into Fashion Tech. You know me, sir. Just me. ourselves. And Ashley, just to introduce you, I've always called you Neil, but your name is Neil Bant, if I've said that correctly. Then you also go by Emmanuel. So do you want to maybe just talk to the audience about what do you prefer? And also, what is Neil Bant?

SPEAKER_01: 1:31

Okay, so Neil Bant was coined out of my name, Emmanuel Ekuban. So basically, Emmanuel, at the end of Emmanuel is Noel, and at the end of Ekuban is Bant. But I think when I'd I wanted to join social media at that time. I didn't want to use my full registered name to be on social media. And then back in school, I was known for, like, we had different Emmanuel's in school back then. So it was like different Emmanuel's. So you are called Emma, you are called Manuel. I'm not kidding. I'm okay. I'll just stick Noel. And then that's why when I joined Instagram, the name that I wanted to use was a different name. But then I sort of like, okay, let me just use a Noel and let me use the bands as in there. But let me use the bands as in there. bounce as like a bounce to represent like my whole family and everybody's just like the bounce you know what I mean so and I added it and then after when my people started calling me Noah Bounce it became like a household name I'm still struggling with it

SPEAKER_00: 2:30

I think that's a really great story I actually thought it was a different story I told Peter that oh it's it's it's African vernacular name and then you know you have the anglicized version right which is Emmanuel so I've known him long and I've actually never had that story so I'm privileged to hear that today and also now understand and appreciate it um of this i guess brand into I guess differentiating yourself from all of the other Emanuels out there and it's Nuel then not new but I love that so thank you let's jump into the first question how have your experiences moving between West African and French societies because you live in Ghana and now also in Paris how have they shaped the way you see yourself particularly and also how you position your work in the world

SPEAKER_01: 3:19

I would always see that I've always been shaped by my community and my upbringing. I grew up in the Eastern region and I never stayed at one place. I was just moving from different culture to another culture. So I got to stay in your hometown, let me say. the Krobo land where I had to do all my schooling over there and I was also influenced heavily by the culture and the tradition of the community. So me transitioning from different cultures to other cultures is not something of a new thing to me because I always love to learn to adjust and I always tell people that I'm not from Accra, I just came to Accra to hustle. So coming from an Eastern region to a greater Accra region where it's like fast life, you just need to adjust whatever you are doing, whatever your vision is to what the system is giving you at that point. So seeing myself today doing stuff in different spaces in the global space is also sort of like everything that every person has been through in life is not wasted. I work with French, some of my guys are also French. So the transition of the company also like going into the French space is nothing of new. It's just we also expanding our territories and then also learning about different cultures and how we reach between both cultures to be able to have like a uniform community to like a uniform industry. Looking at it, when we talk about African fashion, everybody's always looking at the Anglophone space. it's not just Ghana, it's not just Nigeria, it's not just South Africa. There was like Mali, there was Senegal, there was Ivory Coast, there was Togo, there was Benin, where it has a lot of rich culture, craftsmanship pieces in these spaces. But it's just because of where they are from is why you hear about it. I don't say they are the minority, but because of the language barrier, sometimes you feel like it. So for me, it has always been a success with generally moving into a different space, different cultures. It's just that it's, to be honest, it's not as easy as it seems to understand how it works. And then when you understand how it works, you know how to influence every direction you're coming from.

SPEAKER_00: 5:26

Absolutely. And coming back from language perspective, how have you found moving into the francophone space? Like, did you have to take courses in French or are you... moving more within societies that speak more English. So it's actually been okay for you to navigate.

SPEAKER_01: 5:42

Well, my story of studying French is quite a funny one. As I said, every situation you go through in life is not wasted. When I had wanted to do fashion, the only way my family could allow me to move to Accra was to be in a school. I had to just sign up for a French class and say, hey, I'm in a French school. So like, you know, you have to support me. And one of the best things was that my parents never said no to me. I'm like, okay, if language is good, if you want to do language with my mom, my dad speak Italian. So they were like, okay, if you want to do my aunt speak French, like some of our family, like dad speak French as well. So like, if you want to go for it, why not? That was where it all started. And whilst I was doing my French school, I was still working in the fashion industry as like a fashion assistant, as a design assistant, as a model trainer, a casting director, helping with casting and all of that. So it was sort of like, okay, you're studying French. at the same time doing it. Now, when I moved to Benin to improve, I mean, like my French, it was basically for me to just have a way of also leaving my comfort zone and then learning a different demographic and then moving back to to Ghana to then properly start Le Bonheur Afrique and I had my first trip cultural trip which is I went to Abidjan to for a fashion conference and that was where I started from like just finding myself in the francophone space as well

SPEAKER_00: 7:05

that's a phenomenal journey let's maybe pivot to Le Bonheur Afrique which you've mentioned that's your baby that's your brand magazine that you have it's a cultural platform basically what inspired you to create it and how have you built influence and credibility within West Africans deciding where tradition and innovation often collide.

SPEAKER_01: 7:28

When we started Dibona Afrik, we've always wanted it to be a cultural voice, not just a cultural voice. We wanted it to be like a fashion voice as well. After we talk about culture, fashion is also involved. And we wanted it to be something that would speak not to people on the continent, but people globally. And so I always tell people that I'm not always in a rush to build Dibona Afrik to be that one day wonder kind of a brand. And so when you look at the story, it started as a blog where I was just going to events because I had access because I used to work backstage and all that. So I was going to events, documenting these events for the platform. And then we started creating magazine issues where it was just digital. So at that time, we were like only the only digital, fashion digital platform where like people would be love this point into print and all of that. Why would you go into print? I'm like, I just want to be digital. It's just something I could control right now. And so when we started doing a digital platform, that was when we had people say, oh, we love this coverage you did. Can you do the same thing for us? We love these images. Can you just create the same thing? Because we're doing the creative direction, the styling, everything by ourselves. And so we started creating for brands. And that was also with another aspect of the company, which is the Bonafide Studios. We started doing events as well which is where everyone okay we want we love this event we love your community we want the same people at our event we started working on that as well so when you look at the scope we just didn't stand up like get up and say okay we are doing this like we are doing that but like we started from this from a place where um it was more or less like rebuilding because at that point there was no funding there was no sponsorship coming from anywhere so we're just using whatever we had the monies we're working from our clients which we still do, actually, to just develop whatever we wanted to do or the vision we had for the brand. And then, so we started doing fashion weeks. People started, let's say, okay, we wanted to come, we wanted to come here, come and do this for us. And then we realized that, okay, there was a need for what we are doing. So it's about time we just maximize our potential. So that was basically how we all, like, we came about the Boni Afrique, which we also had a model, a agency aspect to it, which was run by my co-founder, which he was doing a lot of like the modeling agency, the model training, the model casting. So it was just easier for us to just have like, we also had an educational platform partner who was in charge of like everything, young designer focus, building businesses focus. So if you look at the synergy, I was coming from a digital perspective, it was all like the fashion, the imagery, the creativity aspect. The vision we had going we started was to create like a conglomerate of like different aspects of the creative industry coming together to form one entity. And that's what we've been able to do over the years.

SPEAKER_00: 10:31

That's a lot. And it's really fascinating to hear how you've started with this really beautiful vision that started off as a blog, the digital space, et cetera, and then how you're recognizing there's limitations in certain spaces. So in a way, it means you have to sort of do a different iteration of that and Afrique to be like okay now we can be an agent because this is what is required to fulfill this base and then it's delving into education all these things I mean I think that's a really beautiful journey but the question is like how do you manage that on a day to day how do you bring the right people on board and I guess you know are these clients that you that are paying you to survive but they support within this infrastructure that you're building?

SPEAKER_01: 11:18

Let me say this. It has always been about the community. I always tell my team that comes and go, like, listen, how we started a company was built on pure passion and the zeal that everybody wanted to put in. People that came to work at the company came to do something and they left. Like, they left EMAC and they left. They built the company to a level and they left. And I always say, everyone who lives deep in Africa, it's not that, okay, we are cutting ties with you, we don't know you anymore because you've left the company. What I want you to see that once you are here, you are also building a legacy to the company. And that when you leave, I want you to be proud and say, when I was at Debonair, we did this. We started this initiative. We did that. And this is to say that we were so much of community and collaboration. One of our four pillars of Debonair Africa is culture, community, creativity, and collaboration. The four Cs. And this is because we, that was how come we started the company And we started building a community with our photographers, our models, our designers, the staff that came in. And one way or the other, every staff that came into the Bonnet raised the company to a level. And I keep saying that I'm not going to let anyone who just came in today take the company back to where it was because I need to protect what every staff or every past co-worker has built. Because some of them even worked for us for nothing in the beginning. So they just lost of the vision they wanted to be part of it I've been blessed with having the best team all the time yes do I would push them to go harder get it better like good things for it I do bigger things but I've always been blessed with the best team because it's one thing as a leader to have a vision and another thing as a leader to have a vision for your team not understanding the vision

SPEAKER_00: 13:06

absolutely and one thing I was going to to come in on because a great leader to I think embolden people people to want to work with you, regardless of if it's paid or if it's free. It's because they believe in something. You have that passion and they see what you can do for them, right?

SPEAKER_01: 13:23

Right. So I'm like, so when I have conversations with them, I'm like, listen, you came to meet this company here. Do you want it to be here or you want it to be there? If you want it to be there, then you need to maintain the same standard you came to meet and develop it. Because when you look at our structure, we didn't, before we didn't even have departments, like we We're all just working together as a team, one big. Everybody's doing everything. But then when we moved, I think, into our new office three years ago, we started to have departments. So then we had like the digital department. We have the marketing department. We have the studio department. We have programs and partnership. And most of them came as like people who have never been done any of these roles before. So it's usually like we have to teach. And this is where community comes in. Like we all... we are all teachers so when you learn something you come teach me i know something i can teach you we are all moving together there is no shame in like i don't know how to do this there is we don't have anything like that one of the things that this is one of the strategies that i used to be able to develop the team though it hasn't been the easiest way because there's an ego play there is somebody saying somebody's being this but it's when you look at the bigger picture it is serving you a great purpose yes it is it has its challenges but then if it's serving you a great purpose you just have to continue in that purpose and then make sure you develop it to a standard where you can travel and run the company from a different country and know that you have like a force. And I keep telling my team that we are at war. And then the war that we are going for, I need people that can stand in front of the battlefield and say, we are the ones we want. And when you look at it, I've never mentioned my name as a founder anywhere because I always say, I'm a creative director. There's head of design, there's head of theater, there's head of that, there's head of that. I'm just a creative director.

SPEAKER_00: 15:14

And it we need to get you a teaching degree because you've already done quantification. You have it there.

SPEAKER_01: 15:21

I remember I was having a conversation with my best friend over the weekend and she's like, I think sometimes you don't play your achievements, you know. How did you do this in Ghana? And people ask the same questions like, how are you doing this in Ghana? Who will pay you for creative consulting? Who will pay you for that? And I'm like, before I speak, there's a price. And that didn't come in a day. It came... As, like, over the years of me, like, learning, unlearning, positioning myself very well, positioning my team very well, and I keep telling my team, you have to protect me. Protecting me means that you have to protect me in a way that not everybody gets access to me. And then when people get access to me, it is through you. So then it raises your standard and let people know, ah, before you go to NOAA, you have to go to a British resort or else you won't get to NOAA.

SPEAKER_00: 16:20

I'm smiling because I can resonate with that a lot as a founder. I find that what's really beautiful about your story is you started up in Ghana, which we don't get to hear a lot. of founder stories happening in the diaspora, in West Africa, North Africa, etc. It always tends to emphasize stories in, I guess, the global north or in the western parts of the world, right? And I would agree with your best friend. You've done phenomenally well in a market that I think often is seen as quite volatile and very difficult to penetrate. It leads me to really my next question, which is, there's often a very dismissive global narrative that Africa isn't serious, right? Even we don't ones that are born and bred. We don't take ourselves seriously. And you know, I think part of that perception has been shaped by colonial history and probably media bias as well. So how have you actually responded to that narrative through the lens of Debena Afri?

SPEAKER_01: 17:20

I don't say I am still, but I think we are still getting there. At I was seeing this thing somewhere, I think last week again, there was a colonial mindset which is still running through our things and our system, which is the fact that the inferiority complex of who we are as Africans also has an impact on our thinking, that everything that we do is not valuable and that I am, I'm sorry, I beg to differ, I don't belong to that school because I think, you know, at a point I wanted to do my master's in fashion, do this in fashion and then I come to, I come people who have masters in fashion. And I'm like, the knowledge I have based on building a company from a country where I have no funding and there was no structure and I have to build everything myself based on the knowledge, the environmental knowledge that I have gotten and the experience I've gotten in the industry. It's how you see yourself. It's how the world is going to see you. And when I come in contact with young designers all the time and I tell them stuff and I see them implementing it, I always tell them that I'm not in your company. I'm sitting outside and I'm watching you from afar and I'm telling you this and this and this is what can work for your company not to say what you're doing is not good but this is where I think it's your next level I think I see you growing more and I've seen a lot of designers do it and it has worked for them because they also trust what I'm saying and that for me one of the things like I said the colonial mindset is that we always feel like we are not good enough and recently I have wanted to do a partnership with one of the biggest global conglomerates in the world in fashion. And as we started the conversation and everything, and then it came, and one of my friends said to me that, well, don't waste your time. They're not going to do anything with the black person. Don't waste your time. I'm like, and I told my team that, don't worry. I just tried. I had a meeting. I had two meetings. So I tried. I put my foot forward. So I tried, even if they don't accept it. And eventually what my friend said came to pass that, oh, so sorry, we can't do this. I'm like, it's okay. I haven't had anything in a different direction to whatever we want to do. And so it hasn't been easy. Speaking to the diaspora hasn't been easy because then people that, like mostly people that grew up, like Africans that grew up in the global space do not really appreciate much of what comes out of their continent. It is just in the recent years that we are seeing people say, oh, I want to belong. I want to feel like I'm back home. I want to do this. It's just in recent years, even in the fashion space, it's just music started like six, seven years ago. I'm going to give it 10 years because music, people appreciating music from home since like six, seven years ago. And then fashion just happened like two, three years ago. Everybody was just screaming African fashion. You go online, there's influencers talking about African fashion. They're just talking about the same chachi piti and ways about the silhouettes, the colors, the patterns. so much like there is so much but some of us like as I said if I'm not getting paid I am not speaking like I am not speaking anywhere because I feel like whatever comes out of my mouth it's years of experience it's years of own money going to the north seeing how the woven fabrics are done going to Kumasi going to the local market growing up in the eastern region seeing how bead making is done seeing the storytelling of bead making and how sustainable it is to our environment, I'm not going to speak for free. And so for me, it's just about the dashboard thing. Like, as I said, as long as you have money, taking a trip to Brazil is good, but taking a trip back home, seeing how things are done, appreciating how things are done in your country can also change your mindset and perspective about things. Like, this year, people got to realize that most of the leather bags they see comes from Africa. Most of the leather comes from Africa and it's sad that we know it, we have it, but we don't appreciate

SPEAKER_00: 21:23

it. And it took my factories who know that information, but I've been hiding it for so long to then kind of say, well, actually it's, you know, 90% or what have you is made from, is leather from Nigeria. And you're just like, why is that a secret? Where is that sort of chain of information when we're talking about the production? and operational cycles in fashion. It just gets lost to, again, the sort of the Western hemisphere of the world. I think we're coming back to How that makes us center ourselves as a majority when we're talking about coming from a global majority of brown people in Africa or the global South, but then coming on minority emotionally, socially and politically when we move back down to Europe or to Western world. How does that shift in mindset affect our sense of belonging? And how do you channel those feelings into your work?

SPEAKER_01: 22:20

Well, When, whenever I find myself in the global space and First thing first, I think with my looks and appearance, you would always see that this guy is African. I don't hide it. I'm so unapologetic about it because that is me and that is my story. And it has started a lot of conversations. It has also led me to different rooms. It has also led, like, people who avoid you, that's okay. People who disrespect you because they don't see who you are or they feel like you're this, like, you know what I mean? But that's okay. But for me, there is always something to learn and there's always something to unlearn. And when it comes to in working in the global space or working with global clients, I've always said something about the understanding the culture of the people they want to impact. is always key. So for me, when I started going for fashion weeks, doing things in the global space, doing events, I mentioned to myself that I need to understand how these people think. Understanding how the people think will also let you know what you think. So I'm not going to an event to just go and waste my time because of a talk or this. I'm going to an event because who is coming? What network opportunities are there? How is the event going to benefit me as a personal brand? So these are the things that when you look at the global space, they are able to navigate themselves to things like that because then they understand the movement of what they are doing. I would say some of these things have shaped my mindset about things that like before I talk to anybody, I talk to any designer, I'll just give my free advice and go. But also working in the global space, I'll start with, oh, before you even talk to somebody for 30 minutes, you need to book an appointment, which is like 200 euros, 300 euros. Sometimes you might think it's no money, but if you can sort out the groceries for a month.

SPEAKER_00: 24:04

Basically, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 24:07

how people are making money in the little ways, not doing much, but also making money in an industry where people think there is no money. So then how do I implement this into my personal brand or into my company? Which is why it's like, for me, it's like something they say, travel and learn or travel and see and all of that. Also finds a way of shaping your mindset about what you do in your industry. And sometimes when I go out there and I see things being done with budgets, then I'm like, me, I don't have budget, but I'm like, I'm being able to do this. But if people have budget and then they are still like not really able to finesse what they are doing, then there is room for me to be able to improve what I'm doing if I'm able to position myself very well and then have a way of selling what I'm doing to other people. For me, that would also make sense to me. I was telling my team last week that it looks like when I'm abroad, I work so harder than when I'm living here because when I'm away, I work from home. So when I wake up in the morning, the next thing is my laptop. I can email because I'm two hours ahead of them. So then I have to put everything together. So once they wake up, they see everything I'm doing, things I want to do, things I want us to discuss and everything. While in Ghana, I'll go to the gym for two hours before coming to the office. We love that lifestyle, soft life. I'm relaxed. In Paris, it's like when I'm done working, that's when I have to go to the gym and do something. But here it's like, I'll go to the gym in the morning, come to the office. My day starts at 11 a.m. Like I can't But then I also know that when I'm away, my team feels the heavy responsibility that the world is coming around and everything is on us.

SPEAKER_00: 25:46

And I think that leads us nicely into our last question before we kick off with a quick fire round of questions. And it's just really, I mean, what you're exhibiting is passion, it's labor, it's time. It's in a way quite militant in your day to day and just ensuring things are getting done and not left behind. right so if a young on the end or a diaspora that creative was listening struggling with their voice or place in the world what would you say to them about owning their narrative and also building something impact

SPEAKER_01: 26:19

i shared something on my linkedin and i said something that when you know your purpose and you work in your purpose you're not distracted the fashion industry the creative industry can be very very very destructive sometimes because i want to see a lot of people doing a lot of things like everybody's doing something yeah they are like what am i even doing how am i navigating the space then You see, we are in a world where everybody is copying, but then ask yourself, what is your purpose? Like you, the person, what is your purpose? Because one of the things that I always ask people who want to work at Le Bonnet is that, what do you want to do for yourself in future? Because I want to see if your stars or your vision aligns with what the company is vision aligned with. So that it's not just, oh, I need salary, I need to take some money and go. I want to know what you want to do. And that once you know your purpose, able to work in your purpose, you are not distracted. But once you don't understand where you are going, you see, oh, this person is doing this, I want to do the same thing, you get lost. I don't know what I'm doing, stack this. But then when you know your purpose, like I can say, okay, for me, one of the biggest thing was to work with fashion brands, build brands, elevate brands, project brands. And this is what I wanted to do all the time. And everything I'm doing today still sits in what I want to do. I

SPEAKER_00: 27:40

think that's beautiful. And, you know, understanding that no vision is too big or too broad and obviously starting small towards building towards that because you never just necessarily get there right it's a process and I think for me the main takeaways from the conversation that we've had today is loving your mantra of Deben Afrik which is culture community and collaboration and in a way that is you walking in your purpose and facilitating those conversations and I really love what you were talking about you know how you see yourself in is how the world sees you and you've risen to become not just a force within the media and PR space in fashion but also yourself as an influencer in the brands that you wear and how that really shapes your identity and that goes back to you talking about your look and your appearance and not being ashamed of what you represent and really of who you are and that goes back down to walking in purpose and I think also walking and working with intentionality Neil that was a fabulous conversation I hope everyone listening today were inspired let's Have a quick fire round of questions. Having traveled all around the world for fashion, which is your favorite city for style?

SPEAKER_01: 28:56

That's wild. That's wild.

SPEAKER_00: 29:01

You gotta be quick. You gotta be quick. Come on. Which one? Since working as an art director, which photo shoot is the most memorable?

SPEAKER_01: 29:14

I'll say I think 2020. Memorable, I would use the Vogue cover research for Vogue. I think that was a huge one. And that time I was working two jobs, so I was consulting for another brand and then working for my own company and at the same time doing this production for Vogue, like let's say three. And I was doing three major campaigns at that time because I I was doing a GTP revamp. I was doing a Christian Brown revamp. And I was doing the Vogue commercial at the same time, like the same timeline. So yeah, that was one of our memorable moments.

SPEAKER_00: 29:47

I agree. I think that very cover was epic. So congratulations to you and your team on that win. Three, did you imagine yourself being in a position you are currently in?

SPEAKER_01: 29:57

No, no. I had imagined something else. Like probably I would have been on TV. I would have been doing like interviews with designers and maybe working in the fashion industry, but more creatively behind the scenes and moving much more now into PR and like luxury courses and marketing now.

SPEAKER_00: 30:15

Amazing. Leather or denim?

SPEAKER_01: 30:17

Denim.

SPEAKER_00: 30:17

What is one thing you want to see more of in the fashion industry?

SPEAKER_01: 30:21

Globally, I want to see more black designers as creative directors. If not, we're building our own brands to reach a level where we can also hire white creative directors to be our creative directors.

SPEAKER_00: 30:32

I think that's beautiful. Neil or Noel, it was amazing speaking with you today and I appreciate your time.