Episode 18: Life Is The Occasion For Nana Acheampong

0:00Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Pretty Busy. Today I was joined by the amazing Nana who is the senior fashion broadcaster and editor for Sheerlucks and she took us through her whole career in the fashion industry. Nana is so inspiring. If you listen to this episode you are going to feel like you can walk into any room, wear whatever you want, live in colour. She was just so amazing and honestly guys she's really brightened up our day in the studio on this rainy cold day in London and I wish I would have worn a brighter colour for her but I did put my heels on and so enjoy this episode let us know what you think and feel inspired

0:51hello everyone and welcome to another episode of pretty busy i am so excited today because i am joined by the lovely nana hello claps in the studios claps in the studios nana thank you so much for coming on first of all what's keeping you pretty and what's keeping you busy oh my gosh what's like a standout product right now that's keeping you pretty oh i would say i always go i'm a very foundation girl okay i have to have a full coverage okay face so nas um long wear foundation oh that's such an og yeah it's such an og but they've brought out a matte version nice and that is i'm just so obsessed and what's keeping you busy what is keeping me busy oh my god that's a very loaded question for a lady like now life at work friends family just all the normal stuff that we're dealing with um i would say my house as well i'm trying to get my house in order i would love to see your house oh my gosh if your house is anything like your outfits actually you'd be surprised it's really tonal oh really yeah it's not bright at all people are really surprised by that i always say that my outfits are the bright and when i come home i need to feel calm so everything is kind of like stone color blush my bathroom's like a blush pink that still sounds fabulous yeah um and then yeah lots of earthy tones basically okay but i haven't got any artwork so it's keeping me busy it's trying to look for some artwork to just drive yourself crazy like i could see it i could spend a whole saturday just looking at like garden furniture yeah completely so yeah chat gbt mock-ups like trying to work it in that's it so that's keeping you busy the house is keeping me busy okay so senior editor and fashion broadcaster at sheerlucks which we'll get to yeah but give me a whistle stop tour on your career growth because i feel like a lot of our listeners are like very early in their career yeah and it is very fashion industry yeah that they want to get into so i'd love to hear a bit about your journey up until this point yeah so So I did journalism at university.

3:04And then whilst I was at uni, my last year, I want to say it was, I started doing all of my internships. Well, it's actually longer than that. But yeah, I started doing all of my internships at different magazines. I did magazines, radio and TV. And what was that like? Was that like classic internship running around? Oh my gosh, running around, not being paid for a start, which I think, thank God, is illegal now. but I basically worked for free for two years running around it was that even possible I know honestly I had a couple since like that but how is that even possible I don't know how we did it like my story isn't exclusive like that's just how it was yeah back then so I yeah used to work for free Monday to Friday interning and then Saturday Sunday I worked in Caramelin love that as that's how we did it exactly i used to work in house of fraser yeah that is how we did it but yeah so i did all of my internships anyway my first proper role was fashion assistant at fabulous magazine love which was just the best grounding for anyone that wants to get into fashion or be a stylist i always say you do have to work from the bottom up and being a fashion assistant is where you cut your teeth and you learn all of the basics and it's just going to put you in the best possible position yeah I always feel like one of your first roles has to be like a humbling one yeah like when I worked at ASOS I was just like running around all day for the team and nothing was ever enough no literally I I just learned so much yeah you do learn so much I'd be in a fashion cupboard packing up returns yeah to go back to PR companies like it wasn't glamorous whatsoever but it was the best time so yeah fabulous magazine was there for three years and then uh this is another classic thing I always say know when the right time is to leave because to give myself any sort of promotion I was like I need to do something on my own so I actually went freelance and became a freelance fashion stylist was that terrifying at the time the scariest thing i have ever done probably to this date and how old were you then i was god i want to say 23 yeah i feel like you've got to be like that early 20s to just like really just yeah just go now i wouldn't be able to take the same risks that i do exactly so yeah i say i think yeah i think i was like 22 23 and scariest thing i've ever done but i always say anything that scares you is a good thing yeah you are gonna sink or swim and you will 100 swim like do not be scared um so i left i was freelance for all of a week before i got a job as one this is another thing is why i always say to people if you have to really like quit that job yeah go for your dream you still remain an employable person yeah so you can get another job i think a lot of people see it is a big risk to kind of like leave your job but you still remain the same person and you are employable yeah and something else will come up so yeah I was unemployed not even unemployed I was freelance for a week and then I got hired as one of the senior stylists on x-factor that's so I did not know that yeah so that was I always call it the golden year because it was the one direction year okay so 2010 okay and uh we had a head stylist and then she had a team there was a team i think of like 10 of us that would just run around and it was our job to style the contestants and the dancers that's so cool and i always say that is the job that made me the stylist that i am today because there is nothing like styling on live tv like my gosh it is did you have any like live disasters we didn't have any live disasters but we had points where it would be 30 minutes before we were going live right on itv and obviously at that point you'd have like 16 million people or something like ridiculous crazy like it was the biggest show were you there for a long time so i did 2010 and i was never sure the james arthur arthur year as well so you basically you work that was the other thing about tv you work every day for three months and then the rest of the year you just you're freelance that's when you go off and do your own thing so it's really intense yeah and then the rest of the year it's like oh you go off and do something else okay um but yeah you'd have like 30 minutes before a show they'd be like oh no we don't like that you need to change it and everyone's running around backstage like so it's like every saturday is like a full-on runway fashion show yeah yeah completely but the best time so yeah did that then I ended up going back to fabulous because I loved it so much amazing team and then I was there for 10 years so that is like the bulk of what role did you go back into that was what I always say as well is great I basically gave myself a promotion yeah so I went back because I'd done x-factor um I went back in a shopping editor which was obviously way higher than being a fashion assistant and then from there I went to senior celebrity stylist and I was in charge of styling all of the fabulous covers which were always cool yeah what was your favorite cover that you done oh I always get asked this top three oh I had a really amazing one with little mix yeah um obviously at the height of their kind of fame evil on gorya oh so absolutely i'd be starstruck yeah that was but probably the most easy woman yeah oh my gosh she was and she was also like just one of the loveliest oh that helps um and then uh any of the spice girls because i'm a millennial and wait you styled the spice girls not all of them i'd say my favorites were emma and mel i always keep it really professional obviously on shoots with celebrities and those were the two where i was professional on the shoot and then at the end i was like i just lost it and they were everything you hoped for yeah oh i love that would you say going back to fabulous you would have would you have got that same role if you didn't take that break at fabulous i don't i think eventually but probably not as quickly yeah like it was quite like you have to with those jobs or magazine jobs how it worked you probably didn't get promotion until someone left yeah and no one really left those jobs because they were incredible like magazines in their heyday we were having like the best time yeah so it was really difficult to get those promotions yeah unless like someone left and I was like I couldn't see anyone leaving anytime soon yeah um and that is actually what happened someone had left and they were like would you want to come back I love that I was like yeah so after 10 years you decided to leave fabulous what kind of triggered that move um so after 10 years then sheer luxe happened yeah um essentially and I guess it's like when you're just saying about how fabulous was in that heyday like print was in heyday yeah sheer luxe and digital is kind of like the new heyday well it is the new heyday yeah 100 100 so I think without even realizing it after 10 years I was like well I could have happily stayed at Fabulous like I was so comfortable but I think maybe too comfortable and I think for me I was like oh this is just going to be my like last job ever because I just love it here so much like I love the people I love styling celebrity covers every day and yeah pretty much I used to do like three a week sometimes yeah but I had started kind of working with sheer luck's going on at the time they had the sheer luck show yeah and I've been going on as a guest which was like amazing I was like oh my gosh I was like these guys are like so so cool and it just it came from a conversation with Georgie um and I was like this is just too good like I have to go for it yeah I just have to go for it and you've been there for nearly three years now yeah so you must have watched it just like change and become like so much in the last three years yeah completely like it was already it really was it was already i remember years ago like seven eight years ago now when i worked at asos all the girls would wait for the sheer like scene now yeah the newsletter yeah it would just be like make our week like that's what we was always kind of like interested yeah it's like the holy grail like i have people like i've got a lot of american friends and family and they knew about sheer luck probably before i did because so they discovered it on tiktok okay it really blew up i think for them during the pandemic yeah and tiktok and obviously that's global yeah um and i think a lot of people then didn't realize that it was a newsletter and you get all of this other content they just listed these girls like in an office so talk to me a little bit about your role at sheer luck so it's senior where's my name senior editor and fashion broadcaster yes what is that role to someone who wants to go i'm so interested like oh my god what does that role cover i bet it covers a hell of a lot yeah it does so it covers me hosting the podcast being front and center in a lot of content for TikTok for Instagram for our WhatsApp channel I'm interviewing I'm coming up with fashion content for the newsletter that everyone loves yeah I've got a column I'm at events I am we've just started a BFF community which is the black female forum so that is me connecting with our black female audience and doing events for that like we just went to Jill Scott this week oh I love that yeah that was amazing so yeah it is all encompassing and what was your first role when you went over to Sheila so I was fashion broadcaster and editor so a lot of the same of what I'm doing now but obviously there's yeah a bit more seniority towards it do you have a lot of people in your team yeah they're the fashion team alone I think there's 10 of us that's quite a big team yeah so if you compare like when I was at fabulous the fashion team there was four wow yeah that's crazy yeah four or five yeah and then talk to me a little bit about your upbringing and how that's kind of like shaped who you are today oh my gosh so i am from a really big family i'm one of five um my brothers and sisters and my whole family are like my entire life like i'm obsessed with them and i think what star sign are you sagittarius love that what are you i'm an aries oh okay um i think because i come from such a big family it has made me i want to say like a big personality but you kind of do have to speak up or you're not heard because there's like so many of us yeah and again because i'm from a big family and i always say as a baby i was kind of just passed around to like any auntie and uncle because my mum and dad were really busy right okay i think because of that i can speak to anyone like you can put me in any scenario and i can just chat and i'm really comfortable that is like such a good trait yeah and i think that also helped with my celebrity styling as well because people just kind of felt at ease with me yeah exactly um so yeah i think my upbringing of yeah coming from a big outgoing family has definitely helped my career well later on in my questions I have like a big piece on confidence because I just feel like you literally ooze it but it is it sounds like it was just you were born that way yeah I think yeah or just yeah that's it just kind of ingrained in me from like a very young age what would you say to like a younger woman that wants to get into the fashion industry that is just I don't know terrified of wearing what she wants to wear or terrified of speaking up in a meeting or putting herself forward yeah I would say just imagine that you are talking to your friends or family like when it comes to public speaking or something like that I think that can be really really daunting and I always just say like me and you here we're just having a conversation it's really laid back it's really chill I think a lot of people you kind of overthink it and put too much pressure on yourself and actually just take baby steps like if do it in front of your friends do it in front of the mirror like just practice does make perfect if it's something that doesn't come naturally to you how do you deal with like being so busy like do you get overwhelmed or do you are you just happy to be oh gosh no i definitely do get overwhelmed at times and i think for me find what brings you calm or brings you something that is grounding so for me it is definitely I'm very big into the kind of like wellness and I exercise every morning do you yeah so I've got a peloton bike that I'm obsessed with okay I've got a PT as well I've run the London marathon twice how do you have the time like so i think no one's got any excuse really and then uh like cooking i love cooking i love cooking yeah and the nutritionist said something on a podcast the other day about how cooking really is a form of self-love yeah like sitting there and just dicing and cooking a meal for like a good three hours is actually a form of self-love yeah completely cooking always for me was like the only thing in like the height of like the stress of running on muse yeah it's the only thing i could like sit and do yeah not think about work yeah otherwise i was going to chop my fingers off yeah that's it i always i'll go for a run or i'll go swimming or i'll do some form of exercise and that hour that i have to myself like i'm not thinking about anything else what was your biggest inspiration growing up oh definitely my family like it was i'd say mum but like mum and out I'm such a daddy's girl so yeah between the pair of them just looking at them I think I appreciate even more now like that I'm older but looking at them running a family running my mum ran a business so seeing her as a businesswoman and like completely bossing it yeah um huge huge inspiration I love that yeah love them both what's been your biggest career highlight oh I get asked this a lot and it is so difficult because yeah there are so many um number one hands down the people the people that i have met along the way is is absolutely the highlight for me and i always say as well especially the people that i think in the 10 years i was at fabulous that had as interns that have now gone on to be editors and like seeing them grow like I would have given them their first fashion assistant job or something like that like it means so much to me like I saw one of them the other day at fashion week and I was just like oh like it just fills me with so much joy how do you like stay in touch with people and stay like so social because you must have met so many people yeah along the way I feel like that's something I'm really bad at like i can really shy away from like networking and going to events but when i'm there yeah it's always like the best thing i've ever done and it always leads to something yeah you just love it i am people think i'm like out every single night which i have been out every single night this week granted it's q4 though it's like the season exactly it's in the girl group i'm the one that calls everyone's like you're the only person other than my mom that calls me okay i love a chat yeah so I'm like pick up the phone again I think it's back to the beginning of my career when we used to have to call PRs and be like I need look number one look number 10 send this over so I'm so used to just like being on the phone so for me the connections are just call someone on your walk on your walk on your way to work there's like you've got a couple of minutes just check in so of it and now that is a good tip like that is so low lift if you're on the train if you're driving if you're walking yeah give someone a call just give someone a call they've popped into your head um so yeah i'd say definitely phoning people and obviously social media yeah like just drop someone a text so have you always been the queen of color have you always worn this much color what made you just want to start dressing in bright colors i 100 i'm from ghana yeah it's my heritage yeah so it is essentially like a birthright i came out of the womb in color in print and I'm so thankful for it like what is the outfit when you're going to get your morning coffee on a Sunday morning what I mean it is casual okay what is casual to you though I want to know casual to me I do love like I love a good aloe okay kind of set so something kind of like knitted or something cozy a pair of joggers like you will I need to see this you also not many people see it because i don't really go out the house yeah or it's like to the end of the road to get a coffee well i try i don't drink coffee but to get a try that'd be it but there is yeah i can do casual okay would you ever just wear jeans to work no i don't own a single pair of jeans what about flats no i love that you know what this year a big mantra for me was like wear heels every day and it is so much better life you feel so much better in a pair of heels the posture yeah the way that i walk like you feel i just that's it the feeling like i don't it doesn't have to be uncomfortable no not at all all of my heels well not that's actually like some of my heels are not comfortable i've got car to dinner shoes oh cool okay they're the ones wait what they're called car to dinner okay so you only wear them to the car then to dinner carter dinner shoes yeah i love that because they're really uncomfortable you just need to be like sat in them yeah i have a few shoes like that that i'm thinking and i mean i've always got i do have an emergency pair of chanel ballet flats yeah always in my bag yeah yeah but i do like to wear heels a lot um favorite uk fashion moments for us it is wimbledon but i'd love to hear so mine definitely has to be royal ascot i love yeah just because i mean something like this would be great at royal ascot yeah um i love any sort of occasion where you can get really really dressed up yeah i always say the occasion is life so just get dressed up every day i love that i love that we need that on a t-shirt yeah but when it comes to uk fashion moments i was a fashion correspondent at royal ascot for i think like two or three years i did it and just speaking to all of the women and hearing their stories of like how they put their outfit together and how they chose the hat and the bag and the shoes and everything i love it absolutely love it so every yeah we've never really like done too much for ascot have you not i've never even been either oh my gosh have you not oh it's such a fun day i love it okay i'm gonna do it next year yeah what's your opinion on building a personal brand alongside your nine to five not just at sheer looks like the girls are doing it like yeah it's very apparent for like a anyone working in fashion yeah especially yeah to want to build i'm seeing like tech girls do it yeah finance girls yeah i'm actually loving the more niche people that are coming out yeah um but what's your kind of like opinion on it um i think it is in the world that we live in today i think it's have as many revenue streams as you can and the easiest way to do that is by building a personal brand yeah and it's completely doable you just have to time management needs to be that's it completely up there and striking the balance between work and what you want your personal brand to be and still having a life yeah that is what you need to kind of merge have you ever struggled with that oh completely they're like I always say something always it has to give absolutely a little bit off keel but you just have to prioritize yeah I always say if it's something that you want to do do it like I think a lot of people do feel like they should be or if they don't want to if you don't want to it's fine yeah but if you want to do it dedicate some time to that like we all again have the same 24 hours in the day as Beyonce so let's go whoops um if you weren't in the fashion industry where where would you be working oh I love this question I think I would be working to be honest in the fitness industry yeah I'd get so much joy from working out and or in the wellness industry like I just love it yeah I think it's the same as fashion as well like every single year like it's changes yeah it's evolving yeah completely if you were to build a business what would it be if I was to build a business I it would be a bakery I love that yeah I so that's my biggest thing is walk me through Nana's bakery like where is it in is it in London if so where oh what's it's like known for what's its Friday special that is I mean I am I I'm gonna tell you my actual business idea okay and if anyone steals it I will come for you okay yeah so bakery I just I would love cakes probably be in East London maybe like Columbia Road so you get your flowers yeah and then you'd come in and get a nice cake I'd also probably I'd like it to be a cake shop and a florist because I also I just love flowers but my actual business idea okay i'm obsessed because this is one of my signatures when the girls or anyone family whoever comes around and i do a sunday roast sunday roast isn't complete until you've had a sticky toffee pudding okay for dessert okay my business would be a stick all the different types of sticky toffee pudding that you could get what's all the different types of sticky toffee puddings you can get you want a banana do you want a day do you want no this is it that i'm thinking of all the kind of different flavors so what is this like a deliveroo in london to finish the roast off or is it like no no it's a standalone sticky toffee pudding shop where you can come in and you're like oh i'm just gonna get a slice of sticky toffee pudding maybe it's got ice cream maybe it's got some crumble on the top like okay that's where you okay i like that That's where I'm obsessed with sticky toffee pudding, basically.

26:33The amount of sticky toffee puddings I've had going around London. Where's the best sticky toffee pudding in London? Do you know Jones and Sons? No. So they used to be just up in Dalston, but there's now Woodford restaurant. They do, I think, the best roast dinner in London. Okay. And then the best sticky toffee pudding. We're going to clip this and get you a black card. And I'm going to try it. right what's one piece of advice you have for young women trying to get into the fashion industry put yourself out there like honestly just go for it and also be your authentic self what is it that you have got to offer to a publication or a magazine or a stylist or what like what is your niche basically that you are giving and be loud and proud about it and what's the best piece of advice you've ever received best piece of advice i ever received was that when it comes to your career there are no shortcuts but getting a mentor is a cheat code i like that yeah that's good right quick fire round what are your three non-negotiables when it comes to building an outfit three non-negotiables there needs to be some heels involved I need to there needs to be comfort I need to feel like me what is this outfit saying about me okay I need to have fun yeah that is it I just want to have fun every day describe your style in three words bold eclectic and stylish oh yeah yeah agree worst fashion trend in the last 10 years oh my gosh this is a hill i will die on and people might come for me in the comments i really the plastic shoe trend made famous by the kardashians you know like the clear i'm not a clear like lot oh i know exactly the ones you're talking about yeah oh yeah no i haven't offended yeah i haven't offended i can't like it's like a wedge and it's like plastic yeah no i haven't offended yeah i recently got like the chloe jelly sandals and i was thinking oh no oh no so no i've tried those i think they've got i tried the blue ones on they're really not they look like they're from the disney shop but they're amazing they're so gorgeous best fashion trend in the last 10 years do you know what i'm gonna say athleisure which people would not probably expect from me but i really i think because i am such a gym girlie yeah it is really nice it's come a long way in the last 10 years exactly it's come such a long way from like just being really functional and not looking that great and like it looks amazing like so i love it i do think the athleisure industry just needs to be studied because sometimes i do see a new brand going viral for a black legging yeah and i'm like but how crazy um but yeah obviously there are some really cool brands doing some cool things there yeah worst outfit you've ever worn oh my god there's so many we'll run it up tell us i was like do you want me to send some pictures here yeah um oh god where's that i mean it just goes back to your teenage years i uh do you remember i don't know if this you might be too young for this but like boxing boots used to be a really big trend what like the like really flat trainers that i can't see it exactly this was like well i shouldn't say when i was clubbing because it was illegal but um okay yeah for me pedal pushers like they didn't look good on me then i definitely wouldn't wear them now but i yeah for me that just and then didn't work it says best outfit you've ever worn but best piece in your wardrobe is what i want to know oh gosh that is you're in like top three again that is really top three then is there anything that any like something really cool that you bought years ago that you just still wear all the time oh do you know what actually i know exactly what it is i've got a red leather pair of jacquemus like barrel leg shape trousers nice and they were bloody expensive but imagine honestly like my cost per wear through the roof yeah i absolutely love them wear them i've yeah i think i've worn them like just so many every not nearly every day but i've just worn them a lot so much yeah for the last like three years since i've had them dream brand to work with are we talking designer or anyone yeah anyone it could be a beauty brand it could be like fashion i've gone straight to fashion yeah as you should currently i would say laurave like their recent spring summer 27 catwalk show what's your opinion on the row the right oh no i'm not a rogue girl yeah it's not for me no um i love that i don't really understand the maybe i'm not cool enough i don't know the minimalistic aesthetic obviously as you can tell i'm the opposite people go wild for it people go wild for it um and the prices for me i'm like oh my gosh i i would rather get like a statement for that amount of money like i don't i don't for that amount of money i don't think i'm going to be minimalist i want a statement yeah completely yeah um but yeah brand wise yeah absolutely love everything kind of like love they do kai collective which is what i'm wearing love this is where i sent you that girl the other day i want to get her on the pod oh yeah you should she is so amazing incredible love everything that she does yeah incredible so yeah there's so many like i always say so many incredible nigerian brands coming out of kind of like lagos have you heard of the brand kellenta yeah they're amazing i love her as well she's just fabulous fantastic um like i'm a big champion of like nigerian ghana and where i'm from south african like any african brands to be honest yeah are doing incredible things what's one thing that people listening now and your followers might not know about you i'm a big arsenal fan oh fun yeah i feel like no one knows that i'm a football fan and they're like really oh okay i love that about you what are you excited about what's going on oh i am so excited for q4 like we're in it now and i've got some amazing trips coming up nice um and november sagittarius as i said yeah my birthday so i'm excited about that i'm one of those people that like is obsessed with their birthday yeah it's a whole month um so i'm really excited for november watch out for all the birthday content love we'll be looking at the outfit um and then i always go away for new year nice so that's i think i always say to people if you get overwhelmed get on a flight yeah honestly for me travel is always a massive reset and that really helps me where's your favorite places to travel to oh my gosh so many but i'd say number one ghana see where i'm from uh costa rica nice had a really really great new year there a few years ago with my best friend okay oh there's so many australia melbourne i went to this year for the second time no i hadn't actually loved australia that much before then i'd been to and i like the fashion out there yeah yeah there's a lot of good brands out there bali like honestly i could i could do this all day i can imagine you're a good holiday girl well that's all my questions thank you so much for coming on i mean i could chat to you all day thank you so much it's so great