Beauty: Community, Creativity, Technology
Sharmadean Reid’s journey from 2006 - 2026
This is the final part of notes from the Future Face of Beauty seminars. This blog post is my notes from the fabulous Sharmadean Reid who shared her journey from being a CSM student to being the MBE, entrepreneur and founder of Stackworld that we know today. This was personally my favourite lecture of the day because I have met her a couple times through Stackworld events and have her book - but hearing her story in person from start to finish gave me a newfound respect and admiration for not just what she has accomplished but who she is. She puts in the work, but it also self aware to know when to rest, pivot or push through. She is a true inspiration and a name to remember.
WAH Zine - made it at CSM at 20 years old
All movements start with a manifesto
Recommended 100 artist manifesto book (penguins)
World building will require a written document to say what you believe in, what you stand for which is an invitation for others to say they also stand for it
She had 10,000 copies of the WAH magazine because her sponsor JD sports chose to not distribute it because there were nipples in the magazine
She had to hand distribute it to everyone
All communities need a physical space
Digital communities are a great equalizer
Pop up, school, park meet up etc…
Give attendees the opportunity to look you in the eye when you say this is what you stand for
Opened WAH nails in 2009 in Dalston
Women were appendages to their spouses in theri hang out spaces - had to create a place that was intentionally for women
WAH nails opened up in topshop oxford circus (as a pop up), then a flagship in soho 2016
Think about business as a vehicle for your thesis
Future girl corp event - teaching girls how to start businesses and get into the start up world
Created this event to have a sponsor and get money to buy a salon
Tech and funding can leave women behind
Wanted to prioritise technology in the beauty experience
Introduced a new photography style for nails - creating a depth of field having a magazine in the background of the nails
Wanted to create a futuristic looking nail salon focused on user experience design
Technology is not neutral. It shapes who is seen, served and sold to
Created a booking chatbot called Kimmie in 2016 - based on the magazine flowchart examples for quizzes
Then collabed with Bowtie to create a better chatbot for the booking system - the guy did it for her for free because she convinced him that the data he will collect from this experience will be invaluable
In 2016, she built a virtual reality experience for nails
Had to sit with the designer to make sure he got all the minute aspects of the nail correct such as where french tips should end on the hand
WAH VR video on youtube
There was a discrepancy that she noticed between her pay as a CEO and that of the workers who were older than her but receiving minimum wage - so she instead created a programme that allowed the women to manage their own bookings and payments to work
This was called the Beauty Stack app
Allow people to book from an image - had to build this app from scratch
Created a magazine to support this too
Challenge the perception of the beauty industry
Launched stackworld in 2021
In 2022 created a DAO
crypto/web3
Taught over 200 women how to open a crypto wallet
Stack world newspaper - journalists were in the room and made articles as a woman about a woman to collate all the panel discussions into a newspaper
Beauty communities can create burnout
Feeling in media that you can never keep up or catch up
By 2024 she was jaded and over it all
Going back to in person
39BC new beauty brand she is creating about ancestral and spiritual beauty
What does AI mean for women in a corporate environment
Omi studio - GEN AI
Creates layered images unlike Chat GBT
There is the argument that GEN AI is taking away jobs, but it is taking away jobs the same way indesign and the steam engine took away jobs
Using all these GEN AI tools takes away community - e.g. in person shoots is where the ideas and community is built
Instagram is not a community and you don’t own the platform
She is known as a business person, but it's really a way to show her creativity
Be involved in building community nit
Having the right tools is a motivator to create
Learnt the tech in year 2 in indesign to apply it in year 4 of her studies
As an artist you reflect the world around you but also you emotional state - if you are feeling it other people are too - listen to yourself and put it out there, see who it resonates with and create a container to hold space for that
