Jessica Bema Asare: Meet the student making fortune from selling African print bikini

Jessica Bema Asare is pursing Computing and Management at Loughborough University.

19-year-old Jessica Bema Asare, born in Milton Keynes and grew up between UK and Ghana has launched UK’s first African print bikini line from the living room of her student digs at Loughborough University, and her debut collection is already a sellout.

 

Jessica started her clothing line with the money she received from her university for topping her course academically in the first year.

'Moving to Ghana and attending a very Pro-African secondary school made me appreciate my culture and relate to my Ghanaian name Bema more,' she told FEMAIL.

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'Most Ghanaians and Africans only tend to wear their cultural prints on special occasions. I wanted to make an item of clothing where we could wear our prints casually, like when we are lying on a beach so bikinis seemed like a perfect idea.'

 

The first collection for swimwears, which includes XL sizes for curvier women was warmly received by her customers and sold out within the first week.

Jessica's dream is to encourage younger women, especially women of color to go into business and also to not be afraid to embrace and promote their culture.

'Growing up, my mum was very stylish,' she recalled. 'She took me along to fashion shows and sometimes had bespoke clothing made for me and I used to sketch the designs for clothes my mum was going to get made for me so that sparked my interest in designing.'

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Aside from her childhood sketches, Jessica had no other experience of design but she learned quickly once she decided to set up her brand. 

'The first step is to conceptualize and sketch the design,' she said. 'My first two were very simple triangle bikinis because I was worried that it might be more difficult to manufacture more intricate designs.

'My last two designs I put more care and thought into after I found a manufacturer I could trust.

'I had seen bikinis that were African print before, but all of them were in wax fabric that is not waterproof. That made me uncomfortable because the color in wax prints can fade when there is too much contact with water. This encouraged me to make bikinis fit for purpose.'

 

'My second year was hectic,' she revealed. 'I did not go out and socialize as much as I did in my first year of uni and I was more selective of events that I attended.

'Sometimes I found myself spending too much time on the Bema Republic and not enough on my studies, so I put it on hold for a couple of months so I could do well in exams.'

Jessica has ensured her range caters for women with curvier figures with sizes going up to an extra large, something you won't always find on the high street. 

'It was important to me because I want my products to be worn by people of all shapes and sizes and people from anywhere in the world,' she explained.

 

'I especially want African women to wear my designs with pride because these are designs which are specifically ours.

'A lot African and black women are curvy and not having styles to accommodate their body types will defeat the purpose of the African image I am trying to promote.'

Jessica is now preparing for her third year at university and is hoping to expand her range and eventually have one of the world's largest African beauty and fashion brands.

Jessica Bema Asare is pursing Computing and Management at Loughborough University. Read Full Story