Nigerian fashion and lifestyle brand, SHUSHI, has evolved from an eyewear-focused business into a creative and visual storytelling house working across fashion, cultural projects, creative direction, brand collaborations and social-impact initiatives.

Founded in 2019 by Nigerian creative director Aisha Sambo, SHUSHI began with sunglasses before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the young business to rethink its model and explore new creative directions.

The company said the pandemic raised a difficult question for the business: “what happens when the product you built your business around is no longer something people need?”

Rather than wait for normalcy to return, SHUSHI began experimenting, introducing clothing and merchandise. In 2022, it released a capsule collection in which its sunglasses became an accessory within a broader creative concept.

According to the company, the period helped it understand that its audience valued more than its products, including “the ideas, identity, creativity, and community surrounding it.”

“We had to heal as a business,” Sambo said. “Our audience was healing too. We couldn’t pretend we were operating in the same world we were in before the pandemic. We had to listen, adapt, and grow with them.”

The experience, SHUSHI said, marked a significant shift from being primarily a product-based brand to becoming a creative platform.

Today, the company operates across creative direction, visual storytelling, fashion, cultural projects, campaigns, brand collaborations and activations, working with individuals and organisations to translate ideas into stories, experiences and visual worlds.

Among its collaborations was a 2023 project with photographer and Adobe Ambassador Ebuka Modiri, #TheFutureIsBlackAndFemale, a photographic series exploring Black female identity and possibility.

SHUSHI also collaborated with Teni the Entertainer on a limited-edition eyewear collection, which the company said is now almost sold out.

More recently, the brand entered an international collaboration with VICTOIRE, a brand of Dutch textile company Jansen Holland, with SHUSHI serving as the named creative director for the launch of Victoire Magic Princesse Bazin.

The resulting project, SHUSHI x VICTOIRE: Made of Memory, combines fashion, African heritage and contemporary visual storytelling in a three-part fashion film exploring “Inheritance, Transformation and Becoming.”

The project includes a fashion film, campaign imagery, behind-the-scenes content and social media assets, with SHUSHI leading the creative direction and production.

The company has also expanded into social-impact work, partnering with organisations including Slum 2 Stage Africa over the past two years.

According to SHUSHI, the partnership supports Slum 2 Stage’s work to create safe spaces where children and young adults can learn artistic skills, dance, build confidence and develop social-emotional skills.

“We don’t want creativity to only be accessible when someone can afford to buy something,” Sambo said. “If we believe creativity can change how people see themselves, then that belief has to extend beyond the people who can purchase from us.”

SHUSHI said its work with Slum 2 Stage has focused on mentorship, documentation and the use of a small shared space to help make the organisation’s mission more visible and encourage greater participation.

Seven years after its launch, the company said it is building towards a wider institution where culture, storytelling, fashion, creativity, social impact and African identity can exist in conversation with one another.

Last week, the SHUSHI team completed production of the SHUSHI x VICTOIRE: Made of Memory fashion film and campaign in Abuja.

The company said the production brought together the people, garments, stories and visual language developed through the collaboration, with the work now moving into its next stage of release.

For SHUSHI, the completed production represents its evolution from a Nigerian eyewear brand into a creative house capable of working across borders and developing larger cultural stories.

“Seven years later, it is creating work that asks people to remember, imagine and see what comes next,” the company said.