Marisa Martins: On Business of Colour, diversity and who has been inspiring her.

We sat down the Marisa Martins, founder of Business of Colour, to discuss the causes she's most passionate about, who is inspiring her at the moment and what's next for her new venture. 

Where are you currently?

We're currently sitting in our living room in our pjs, Dan in her avocado tee and I'm in my SpongeBob shorts! We are planning our next month of content which we're eager to share.

Tell us about Business of Colour and what inspired you to start it?

In light of the BLM movement we wanted to do more to support our community in a time when businesses have been hard hit by both a pandemic and a civil rights movement. We wanted to create a platform that showed a more diverse representation of what a black owned business looks like.

Business of Colour is a partnership, how did you come to work together?

We both work in styling and wanted to create a page that represented our minimal aesthetic, with brands we genuinely love and buy from! Social media platforms were sharing more black owned businesses since the movement but we wanted to take that to the next level.

What causes are you most passionate about?

We are passionate about diversity and representation and believe in the importance of rebuilding generational wealth within the black community.

Do you feel it is important for businesses to be advocates for change?

Yes, we believe it’s important that everybody does their part to actively dismantle systemic racism. We all deserve to see ourselves represented in the brands we buy from.

What issue(s) has the current crisis highlighted that you want to help solve?

For us, the current crisis has highlighted the need to come together more in the black community and be our own cheerleaders. The world is a scary place right now and we want to be advocates for sharing love instead.

Whose actions have inspired you during this time?

The launch of Black Pound Day by Swiss has been extremely inspiring for us. There is so much talent and innovation in the black community that has been overlooked, so it is beautiful to see people come together to help elevate black businesses.

What are your favourite Instagram accounts?

We are obsessed with @lefevrediary, @scarletkent, @drewomaukeleghe & @chanelmckinsie, their feeds are everything.

Finally, what is next for Business of Colour?

We want to keep working on creating original content going forward. We’ve had an amazing response to our fashion edits and we’ll definitely be doing more of that. We’ll also be creating more interactive content for stories - we’re just getting started!