First Look: Nubian Skin

Nude in fashion is supposed to refer to fleshy-colored shoes, dresses, fill in the blank. But if you  google “nude ______” you will basically bring up pages of items in various shades of peach. (I checked out shoes and clothes, but I have to warn you if you search for nude lingerie it’s nothing but nasty!)

As a brown girl I basically gave up and never thought of nude anything as referring to my skin tone. And if I wanted a bra or undies closest to my skin tone I just bought black.

Clearly Nigerian Brit Ade Hassan feels the same frustrations of brown girls everywhere. “It’s time for a different kind of nude,” she says. Merging her background in finance with her love of fashion she launched Nubian Skin, a nude lingerie and hosiery brand for women of colour. Hassan was deeply inspired by African-American fashion and beauty entrepreneurs, Eunice W. Johnson who started Ebony Fashion Fair, and  supermodel Iman’s Iman cosmetics. She too wanted to fill a void in the market for products specifically catering to darker skin tones. Her mission statement is “Empowering women. Embracing our colour.”

The collection includes The Essential T-Shirt Bra, The Strapless Convertible Bra,  The Classic Lace Push-Up Bra, and a selection of briefs, shorts, and thongs. Nubian Skin offers 10 different denier tights and holdups in four signature shades: Berry, Cinnamon, Caramel, and Café au Lait.

I love what Hassan is doing with Nubian Skin. I also really love that my order for nude lingerie will arrive soon in a berry shade and not a peach!! You can check out