AphroChic Magazine: Issue No. 1

When AphroChic began, our blog was dedicated to highlighting the contributions
of Black people in the world of design while providing content for smart, design
savvy people of color - an audience we were often told did not exist. At first it
was just a hobby, but things have a way of growing and AphroChic had a mind of
its own. Two years after it started, our blog became a product line, then a book
and after that an interior design company. Now, 12 years since our first blog post,
we’ve come full circle.
Four years ago we had the honor of speaking at Harvard’s first Black in Design Conference.
It was an amazing event gathering hundreds of Black architects, designers,
and students from all over the country. It was truly inspiring; yet as it went on, we
realized how little we all knew about each other. It drove home to us the importance of
increased representation - not just within the so-called “mainstream” - but in our own
community. We realized how much we needed to see us, for us, and we decided to do
something to help.
AphroChic has always been about filling voids. The blog looked to fill a void in a conversation
that took no notice of Black creatives or a Black audience. We created products
because we saw so few luxury items for the home that connected to our culture or represented
our history. We wrote a book and designed spaces to show how rooms and the
things we put in them can tell our story.
With this magazine, we want to fill another void. We want to provide a platform for
showcasing our presence and our talents, a lens for appreciating Black creativity in all
fields. This isn’t a design magazine or even a lifestyle publication - it’s a quarterly love
letter to the cultures of the African Diaspora, to the people who fought to create them
and to those who work now to see them continue and evolve.
In each issue, we will highlight stories of Black creatives in a variety of disciplines,
industries, and fields while exploring the connections between art, design, architecture,
food, technology, music, politics, and history that fit together to make a culture.
Thank you for taking this first step with us. Welcome to AphroChic Magazine.
Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason
Founders, AphroChic
Instagram: @aphrochic
editors’ letter