Pure Lagos is an African Art Gallery and boutique shop that offers/displays original art, fashion pieces and other cultural pieces throughout Africa. It is in Norfolk, VA and is cozily placed in a area known as Selden Market, which features up and coming new businesses/business owners; making it a safe place to try and test new ideas and develop good relationships among customers.
The owner of the Pure Lagos establishment is Sia Alexander who has attended both colleges Stanford and Howard University with a Bachelor’s in Human Psychology. It led to her becoming a therapist prior her decision to pursue a path in the fashion industry. But during her downtime, she found herself focusing her time on studying health, nutrition, and the maintenance of natural beauty, thus leading her into research and developing a business where she could promote natural based products such as skin care using herbs and plants originated from Africa.
“I started out with Sia Natural which flowed into HealLoveNow,” Sia explained. “I now have four art galleries and holistic centers in downtown Norfolk where the black community and the community at large can come to experience an afropolitan mind, body, and spirit healing through the products that I made through food and the organic teas that I prepared.”
When asked regarding her journey and experience into the fashion world and the start of her natural based remedies, she replied:
“The fashion line, well I traveled all over Africa and the world for many years working in the fashion industry and I came to understand that my true passion was not in modeling the creations of other people or big businesses,” Sia stated. “But in highlighting the artistic expression of the indigenous peoples of the African diaspora.”
The time spent in Africa, she learned alongside the various healing advantages of herbs and traditions of the culture and getting that first-hand experience that many would dream to have.
“I learned from a few really profound experiences whilst travelling throughout South Africa and West Africa about the natural healing power of herbs and some of their traditional food and Prince of the land African people have used for centuries to heal the body, the mind, and the spirit.”
In the meantime, it inspired her to start her own business with the emphases on skin care and she stated at first it was “a personal desire to heal my own skin because I had some extreme skin issues in my 20s and so I developed the products to work on myself initially and my friends and then that led me into making products for other people and so that was kind of the start of my business.”
From creating and building up her businesses and succeeding in doing so, it all stemmed from her following her dreams and taking that first step to get to where she is now. “Well, I think based on my own personal experience and my interfacing with other black women entrepreneurs globally the fundamental asset that one would need in order to succeed at instance in the black community I feel is to follow your heart,” Sia explained. “I think my love for these afropolitan services and products is what drives my success as a businesswoman, and I would imagine that any woman or person out there who wants to do business find that thing that you love and then run with it.”
Sia is a lovely person to meet and get to know and an overall kind human being who wants everyone to show the best version of themselves.
If interested in learning additional information regarding her businesses/products, you can visit their website and check her socials!
https://sialove.org/
https://pure-lagos.square.site/s/shop
https://m.facebook.com/purelagos/
https://m.facebook.com/heallovenow/
