Hanifa Wants You to 'Live Out Loud' This Summer

"With each collection launch, I hope to grow with the Hanifa woman, in whatever capacity that looks like."

The last twelve months have been huge for Hanifa.

The label founded by Anifa Mvuemba was a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist, debuted footwear and dressed Barbie. It also staged its first runway show in Washington, D.C. For its next collection, though, Hanifa is going back to its roots, in a way, revisiting the digital format that made it go viral back in 2020.

"What we enjoy about sharing our collections, whether virtual or in-person, is reflecting our customer base and the community of women we design for," Mvuemba tells Fashionista. "This season, we decided to present a point-of-view runway show to immerse viewers into the full experience of our collection. Oftentimes, the logistics and production of putting on a physical show can distract from the main show, we wanted to return to our first love... the clothes."

In addition to making headlines around the globe, Hanifa's virtual 3D fashion show for "Pink Label" back in 2020 brilliantly achieved something so many others had been trying to do amid a global pandemic that forced the world to lock down: create an engaging, memorable online experience around a collection reveal. With the knowledge it's gleaned from its digital and physical debuts alike, the brand premiered its Summer 2022 offering — dubbed "Live Out Loud" — on Tuesday night via a short film that "mirror[s] the virtual with the physical," per Mvuemba. The looks became available for purchase immediately.

The title of the collection is also the designer's wish for the Hanifa customer: She wants these clothes — with their bright colors, statement-making cuts and eye-catching shapes — to help them be their most authentic, passion-driven selves.

"We began ideating and working on this collection almost immediately after the previous show," Mvuemba writes. "We wanted to think ahead and knew that this would be more bold and innovative than past Hanifa collections before... As we evolve as a brand, our customers do, too."

Mvuemba and her team are "hyper-focused," as she puts it, on the Hanifa customer — what they're saying, what they're buying, what they're responding to — and each collection is a reflection of that. "Following the bleak early months of Covid, we can feel ourselves and our customers desiring joy," she writes. "Every piece in this collection is a call for enjoyment."

The ultimate goal, she says, is to create something that the customer can turn to at every single moment or milestone in their life: "With each collection launch, I hope to grow with the Hanifa woman, in whatever capacity that looks like. If she's getting married, if she's purchasing a new home, if she’s stepping into a new style or era — I want to give my customers an evolved piece of the Hanifa brand throughout every step of their journey."

With "Live Out Loud," Mvuemba wants to emphasize Hanifa's range, literally and figuratively. "As I've said before, I want to inspire others to live out loud, instead of playing it safe," she writes. "I want my customers to see themselves through this collection, and feel comfortable expressing themselves to the fullest. After 10+ years, I want everyone to know that Hanifa is only getting started."

See the full Hanifa "Live Out Loud" collection in the gallery below.

View the 31 images of this gallery on the original article

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