For Black History Month, Target is celebrating Black designers and businesses with an exclusive collection, and the designs of two Atlantans have been selected. Jolie Noire is the inclusive fashion brand of athleisure clothing designed by sisters Keyondra and Kim Lockett. Jolie Noire offers sizes from XS to 6XL and celebrates the beauty of Black women in their designs. The Lockett sisters joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes via Zoom to share the philosophy of Jolie Noire and how the brand’s sudden boost came to pass.
Interview highlights:
On the joy of discovering their brand’s significant leveling up:
“I took [the email] to our mom, my sister, and then our business coach at the time,” said Kim. “I was like, ‘Um, guys, is this real?’ Because, you know, we’re living in the age of spam and hackers. And so our business coach, she went to do a little bit of research on LinkedIn on the person [whose] signature was at the bottom, and she was like, ‘You guys, this is real.’” Kim went on, “We did a lot of screaming and laughing and crying, without even knowing what they wanted.”
Why the world needs Jolie Noire:
“We’ve always wanted to be entrepreneurs, but this whole situation, or the idea behind this business, was to affirm and validate Black women, as well as to just build our wealth up,” said Keyondra. “We think that it’s very important as Black women, but as people, period, to have our own, and to build up some type of wealth for ourselves … but we’re able to build people up and edify them as well, which, of course, right now in this time, we all need that.”
“Our message, it resonates with Black men as well. We’ve had many testimonies of Black men being encouraged and empowered by seeing us … darker brown-skinned women pushing out beautiful Blackness, and that Black is beautiful, because they, too, were taunted for the color of their skin when they were younger, and they’re still trying to get over the effects of that in adulthood,” said Kim. “It was important to include them, so we gave them a little shelf in the closet.”
The Jolie Noire aesthetic:
“We say that we are elevated essential wear, so it is definitely elevated. It is chic if you will. It has lots of color, lots of boldness, but at the same time, it has a simplicity,” said Kim. “The kind of feeling that we want you to get [is] that this is something that’s timeless because you’ll always need a sweater. You’ll always need a good pair of comfortable pants, something that you can throw on to work out in, or to run to the door, to go to the grocery store really quickly. You always need those pieces. It’s clean, and it is simple, and with a little bit of boldness as well.”
“I love color contrast and the colors that we choose, though they are usually warmer because they tend to agree better with our warmer skin tones — our rich brown skin tones,” said Kim. “And they usually can go with a neutral or a warmer undertone, or a cooler undertone very easily.”
More on Kim and Keyondra Lockett’s inclusive fashion brand Jolie Noire can be found at joliexnoire.com.
