The Black Beauty Club Is Shaping the Future Through Community
We talked to the club’s founder Tomi Talabi.
Founded on the principle that Black beauty doesn’t just inform trends but completely shapes the industry, The Black Beauty Club is tapping into the influence of the Black community by empowering its members to connect with each other and exchange insights. After quickly discovering that the most vital members of the beauty landscape often go unrecognized, founder Tomi Talabi set out to create a space that unapologetically supports Black innovation.
Through these pillars, The Black Beauty Club was born. “How we gather matters just as much as what we say. We’re intentional about creating spaces that feel honest, rigorous and generous, without being performative,” Talabi tells Hypebae. “We’re building something that people can return to, not just attend once and we’re committed to holding Black beauty with depth — because it deserves depth: it’s art, it’s identity, it’s business, it’s community and it’s power.”
Ahead, we speak to The Black Beauty Club’s founder Tomi Talabi about uplifting leaders and her future plans for the club.
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On the Inspiration Behind The Black Beauty Club
The Black Beauty Club came from a pattern I kept seeing, over and over: Black beauty drives so much of what the industry becomes, however the people behind that influence are not always met with the same level of access, investment, or long-term recognition. I wanted to create a space that treats Black beauty with the seriousness it deserves, not as a trend, but as a living force that shapes culture and commerce.
The club began as an idea to gather and mind share in a way that felt elevated and culturally intelligent. As more people found their way to it, it expanded into an engaged community because the need was deeper than content. People want connection, trust and rooms where they can speak openly, think strategically and be seen fully. Today, that’s what we protect: a high-signal community that holds real conversation, supports builders and creates meaningful moments of visibility and momentum.
On the Crucial Role Black Beauty Plays
Beauty is one of the most influential cultural languages we have right now. It shapes how people present themselves, how communities form, what becomes aspirational, and what narratives spread. Beauty is identity and imagination, but it is also economy.
Black beauty sits at the center of that. So much of what becomes “new” in beauty, the aesthetics, the techniques and even the language, often begins in Black communities and then travels outward. At the same time, Blackness has also been positioned as something to be corrected, contrasted, or controlled, whether through narrow ideals like thinness, certain facial features, or respectability politics in professional spaces. So you see this contradiction: the culture borrows from Black creativity while still policing Black bodies and taste. That’s why the influence is undeniable, but the ownership is not guaranteed.
On How The Black Beauty Club Is Shaping the Future
The future of beauty is being decided quickly, and often without the full presence of the people who are already shaping it. The industry is changing in real time: how brands are built, how consumers discover and shop, how creators drive trust, how culture moves across platforms and how power consolidates.
Shaping the future became a core pillar because I realized we need more than celebration. We needed strategy, connection and infrastructure. We need spaces where builders, operators and cultural leaders can gather to exchange insight, name what’s coming and position themselves to lead. That’s why we built moments like the Beauty Vanguard 50 to recognize cultural authorship and honor leaders in a way that feels meaningful, and Founders & Friends to create a real working room for people building through this moment.
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On the Club’s Affinity for Collaboration
Black people come from a tradition of word of mouth. That’s how knowledge has moved through our community, how we’ve protected what we create, and how we’ve multiplied our power, even when the system wasn’t built to support us.
Beauty moves fast, and Black innovation is often adopted widely without the origin being properly credited or compensated. Exchanging ideas within our community helps us keep the line of authorship intact. It’s how we pass down the “recipes,” whether that’s technique, strategy, contacts, or lessons learned. It reduces isolation, shortens learning curves and strengthens the pipeline between creativity and opportunity.
It’s also about trust. There are conversations that only happen when people feel culturally understood and not flattened or explained away. When we build those rooms, people share what they wouldn’t share anywhere else. That’s where the most useful insight lives, and it’s where real partnerships and new leadership paths are born.
On the Future of the Black Beauty Club
We’re building The Black Beauty Club around one idea: cultural influence should translate into lasting power. That means creating spaces where people can connect with each other, be seen accurately, and leave with something that moves them forward.
Beauty Vanguard 50 is a core expression of that. It’s both recognition and record, identifying the people shaping beauty and culture now, and placing their work in the center of the narrative where it belongs. As we grow, we’re expanding with intention, protecting the quality of the community, the rooms and the storytelling, while widening our reach across cities and audiences that are shaping what’s next.
Long term, The Black Beauty Club is becoming a global platform that convenes culture-shapers, supports business builders and helps translate cultural influence into authorship, equity and leadership. We’re making sure Black beauty stays where it already belongs: at the center, with the power to define what comes next.
