Meet Jeanine Hays & Bryan Mason | Founders of AphroChic

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jeanine Hays & Bryan Mason and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jeanine Hays & Bryan Mason, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
We started AphroChic in 2007. The brand began as an interior design blog. A space to showcase the diversity that exists in design. We saw a lot of other interior design blogs out there, but very few showed Black homes, the work of Black designers, and mainly showcased white interiors. We knew that there were stunning spaces and design work being done by Black folks and AphroChic became the place to share it.

After years of blogging about design, in 2009 we branched out and created a first line of home decor products. The first collection included pillows that represented an African American heritage. And a few years after that, we wrote our first book, REMIX: Decorating with Culture Objects and Soul, the first book to focus on design from an African American perspective in over a decade.

Today, we are the authors of two books – Remix and APHROCHIC: Celebrating the Legacy of the Black Family Home. We have an extensive home decor product line, where we work with artists and artisans from across the African Diaspora, including Morocco, Spain. A magazine, podcast, and we produce short films and video on the Black experience at home.

The thought process for the brand was simply to showcase the diversity in design, specifically Black culture, and today our work on this path continues to grow in ways that we never could have imagined.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
We are a modern media and design brand focused on celebrating creativity throughout the African Diaspora. Less than 5% of all media in the United States is Black-owned. As one of the few Black-owned media outlets, we are telling the beautiful story of Black life in creative fields – design, fashion, food, music, and so much more.

There is nothing easy about the work that we do, but we are driven by purpose. To show Black people around the globe as we are – creators, innovators, artists, teachers, historians, and so on, is an honor.

Currently, we are deeply proud that our book, APHROCHIC: Celebrating the Legacy of the Black Family Home has been added to the Library of Congress collection. It is the world’s largest library and it holds our national record. To know that our book is now part of the national record, revealing an untold aspect of American history is something we never could have dreamed would happen. We are elated that it’s happened not for us, but for the culture. That’s who we do it all for.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Jeanine went to school in Atlanta, a graduate of Spelman College, so the city is like a second home. Places we would recommend visiting while in the city:

– Spelman College Museum of Fine Art showcases art by and about women of the African Diaspora. The museum was the first place I saw the work of Kara Walker as a student, This month they open the Harmonia Rosales exhibit, showcasing 20 works by the Los Angeles-based Afro-Cuban American artist. It’s a must-see.

– The King Center. Your have to see the new sculpture that was recently dedicated in honor of Coretta Scott King. The open-air dome is meant to be an immersive experience, and includes a podium of microphones, one of which is live, to amplify people’s calls for positive change.

– Take in an Atlanta Dream game. The WNBA is having such an amazing moment right now. Many of the players are leading the charge, using their platform in sports as a platform for change. We’re big fans of the WNBA’s culture and the incredible women on the teams and would love to see the Dream play in person.

– Black-owned restaurants are everywhere in Atlanta, which is incredible. We’d suggest going on a food tour to check out Dat Fire Jerk Chicken, Roc South Cuisine and Popbar.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
That’s easy. It’s those we dedicated our new book to – The Ancestors. Nothing could be accomplished without those who came before us. We are always looking at the blueprint that they laid out for us. The work of W.E.B. DuBois, Ida B. Wells, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin – they provided a blueprint on how to build culture. The work our families – our grandmothers, mothers, aunties; grandfathers, dads, and uncles who created and sustained home for us so that we knew what home really was, not what was barely shown in mainstream culture about Black homes, Black culture and Black design, but the loving spaces we grew up in. We stand on the shoulders of so many. Without them there would be no AphroChic.

Website: www.aphrochic.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/aphrochic

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aphrochic

Facebook: www.facebook.com/aphrochic

Image Credits
The image upload wasn’t working, so you can find images at the links below: – Author photos: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/uchbfc18t5fm1867ekime/h?rlkey=9a5bz0e84pjr1ncjcvqhvzq11&dl=0 – Book cover: https://www.dropbox.com/s/djimer0prv3a0ok/AphroChic%20Book%20Cover.jpg?dl=0 – Images from AphroChic: Celebrating the Legacy of the Black Family Home: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/08fkp1gsw2ssz6c4euw8z/h?rlkey=yt4c4gqr6y5ajfc14u55equew&dl=0 Images are by Patrick Cline, for AphroChic: Celebrating the Legacy of the Black Family Home by Bryan Mason and Jeanine Hays, Published by Clarkson Potter 2022.