Womenswear brand Wana Sambo has announced the launch of its new line that caters to curvy women. According to the brand:

The Wana Sambo Curvy line is an extension of the Wana Sambo brand designed to cater to the more “curvaceous” woman. Curvy to us means; “The African Woman’s body type”. African women are naturally endowed and are more voluptuous than most women in other continents. As a result, we find it difficult to sometimes dress our bodies based on the conventional western size guides created for the western woman’s body type.

The line celebrates the African woman endowed with admirable intellect, confidence, beauty, and style. Each garment was designed with the corporate CURVY woman in mind. We wanted to appeal to her with more body-conscious styles in different designs and size ranges tailored with perfect cuts to fit her.

We collaborated with 3 CURVY women; Arese Ugwu, Chinwe Egwim and Chyna Bee, who spoke about their experiences dressing their body types, getting stereotyped because of their curves and how they have thrived in their careers and various fields regardless of these stereotypes.

We hope this collection inspires every curvy woman to own her curves and dress just the way she dares to. With every collection and design, the Wana Sambo brand aims at impacting women’s lives, one garment at a time. By naming garments after inspirational women and telling their stories as an inspiration to all who come across or wear these garments named after them.

Arese Ugwu

Arese is the founder of the personal finance movement ‘Smart Money with Arese’ (www.smartmoneyafrica.com), a platform that provides high-quality content and action tools tailored to Africans. Her main objective is to help change the African narrative of poverty by educating her generation and the next via financial literacy content that breaks down the very complex issue of money. Her articles have also been published on BellaNaija, Genevieve Nigeria, BusinessDay and in Y! Africa magazine.

She is the author of two best-selling personal finance fiction books The Smart Money Woman and The Smart Money Tribe as well as the executive producer of the new tv show of the same name starring Osas Ighodaro, Ini Dima-Okojie, Toni Tones, Lala Akindoju and Eby Eno. Arese sits on several boards including House of Tara International as a non-executive director and is an associate member of WIMBIZ (Women in Management Business and Public Service). Arese holds an MSc in Economic Development from University College London (UCL) and a BSc in Business and Management from Aston Business School, Birmingham. She is also an alumna of the Lagos Business School, INSEAD Abu Dhabi, and The London School of Business executive education programs. Her interests include world travel, reading, and playing tennis and squash.

Chinwe Egwim

Chinwe is an economist with over 500 published economic notes mainly geared towards macroeconomics which cover fiscal profiles, monetary policies, fx dynamics, interest rate movements, trade, GDP growth trends, reserves management, inflation and sectorial trends among others. She consistently applies rigorous analysis to ensure Africa’s economic landscape is better understood.

Chinwe was appointed as a National Consultant by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa to lead the services trade project. In 2017 she was included to the World Bank’s Systematic Country Diagnostic Consultative Committee focused on boosting inclusive growth. She has also been included in IMF Article IV consultations, her contributions to this country surveillance process are geared towards economic and financial developments. Chinwe is an active member of the Africa Development Bank Meetings and currently sits as a member of the Board committee on research at the Nigeria Economic Summit Group.

Chinwe is a speaker and moderator. Her TEDx talk has contributed to conversations around lifting women. Chinwe's views are featured across media platforms – her article on the AfCFTA and Women was published by the World Economic Forum. She is regularly pulled in to give expert advice around economic trends on news channels such as CNBC Africa and the BBC.  Chinwe is an advocate for women empowerment. She is an Associate of WIMBIZ, one of Africa’s leading female empowerment NGOs, and has served as both the Head of Fundraising on its planning committee and Head of Research on its WIMBoard (Women on Boards) Advocacy Committee.

Chyna Bee

Chyna Bee is a beauty entrepreneur and former fashion stylist. Most notably, she is known for being Tiwa Savage’s official hairstylist. Chyna is the owner/CEO of CB Beauty Bar (A hair and beauty Salon) and Chy Chow (a continental restaurant).

Credits:
Art Direction: @wanasamboceo
Styling: @iamisaacjon
Photography: @yusufshotit
Makeup: @pulcher_beauty
Hair: @_hairbybrown
Video: @yemithesage
Collaborators
@areseugwu
@chin_way
@who_is_chynabee