About Her Business & Career: Busayo Olupona is the founder of Busayo, a fashion and textile company based out of Lagos, Nigeria. Through her company, Olupona is preserving the traditional method of fabric dyeing that is used in Nigeria and incorporating it into the contemporary fashion world here in the U.S. By basing her company out of Nigeria, which is where the founder’s family is from, Olupona is able to work with and support local businesses and artists firsthand while providing them with a platform for their work to be seen around the world.
Why She Made the Worthy 100: Olupona’s dedication to the preservation of traditional dyeing methods used in Nigeria has led her company, Busayo, to tremendous amounts of visibility and success. By persevering in her mission to expose the world to the beauty of traditional African textiles, Olupona has contributed greatly to the diversification of the fashion world, bringing awareness to the value of diverse representation in the industry. Additionally, the support she offers to the small businesses and artists in Nigeria who dye and sew her contemporary designs demonstrates the many areas in which diversification of style and method can be beneficial.
Industry: Retail/Fashion
Year Founded: 2011
Headquarters: New York, N.Y.
