“Fashion has always been a second skin to me, I never understand when people say they aren’t involved in it – if you wear clothes, you are involved in it. Fashion is my most comfortable communicator, and working in a global industry that never sleeps, is 24/7 and is also full of the most exceptionally incredible people I have ever met, is simply the icing on the cake. Imagine that. I know that my website connects with people who enjoy the same passion for creativity through fashion that I do, and who use it as a medium to inspire and be inspired, and to run after their dreams until they overtake them.” – Samata
Samata is a British born Ghanaian entrepreneur working across fashion and media. Samata is passionate about cultural sustainability and connecting the dots between people, communities and the planet.
For 13 years, Samata grew and developed a women-led initiative promoting sustainability within the entertainment and design worlds. Overseeing design, educational and commercial initiatives alongside delivering sustainable fashion at the Oscars, she led collaborations with creatives, brands and organizations from Ghana and Nigeria, across to Italy and New Zealand, working with established brands such as Louis Vuitton, Armani, and Vivienne Westwood, alongside small independent designers such as Laura Basci. Most recently, Samata wrote and delivered the Sustainable Style Guide for the 95th Annual Academy Awards, known as The Oscars.
She developed the Billie Eilish Climate and Fashion focus at the singers’ London Overheated Festival, and joined 2021 The UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) as part of the SHE Changes Climate initiative, later delivering a keynote during 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP27) in Egypt on Designing for Sustainability.
Samata holds advisory and mentor roles at Cambridge University’s Institute of Sustainability Leadership alongside having spoken at Yale School of the Environment, COP26, COP27 and SXSW, and has been invited to Number 10 Downing Street to address two British Prime Ministers on the subject of sustainability, business and entrepreneurism. In 2020, Samata was selected by Cambridge University to champion their new series for the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership entitled ‘Future we Want initiative’, in addition to sharing insight for the inaugural IPBES, Global Biodiversity Podcast – Nature Insight.
She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and sits on the sustainability council for Rothys with a focus on the relationship between biodiversity, climate and apparel production. A producer, published author (THE TRIBE™ Empowerment Journal, The Fashion Designer’s Resource Book – Bloomsbury Publishing), Samata delivered her first TED talk in July 2023.