COCOABELLA®

A young city professional has recently moonlighted her way into creating the fashion and beauty brand, Cocoabella. Not content with holding down a successful career in banking, Deola Ònásanwó’s passion and cultural background led her to establish her very own designer label now set to launch its first collection inspired by African and POP culture, RETRO-Glam.

The motivation behind the creation of Cocoabella comes from not only the young designer’s immense fervour for fashion and beauty but also her African roots and desire to change people’s perceptions;

‘The phrase ‘Cocoabella’ popped into my head two years ago, whilst writing my dissertation on beauty. My research opened my eyes to how expressions such as ‘the darker the berry, the sweeter juice’ and ‘black is beautiful’ were undermined by the popular use of skin lightening products by women of colour.  The general message from my participants/respondents was that being dark skinned was only attractive so long as the skin colour was not too D.A.R.K.’

It was this realisation that evoked a strong desire to make a difference, so using her creative talent and natural ability the young designer started a campaign that would celebrate beauty in all women regardless of skin colour. The initial campaign proved so successful that this later morphed into a business concept and Cocoabella was born; a fashion and beauty brand delving deeper than just the surface.  

The debut collection RETRO-Glam embraces Onasanwo’s true African heritage with the use of traditional African prints and fabrics; this has then been fused with inspiration from POP culture culminating in a highly wearable and on trend collection.

Deola Onasanwo may not have the typical fashion background or training, but this young, inspirational city worker has proven that a natural capability and strong belief in something can make your dreams and aspirations a reality, and now Deola is the proud owner of a rising fashion label…Cocoabella.