Candy-Ellie Graham is the Founder of Cultural Style Week. I had the opportunity to talk with Candy to get to know her more and find out what inspired her to launch this innovative week-long event. Cultural Style week takes place from May 21st – May 27th, 2022.

StylzMag founder Candy-Ellie Graham

What is your background?

I was born in Nigeria and my family moved to London in 1985. I was three years old at the time. We lived in Peckham in Southeast London and then moved to East London, where I have lived ever since.

Regarding my professional background, I started my career in TV production but then I moved into marketing communication which ties a little into what I do now.

In addition to being the founder of cultural style week, I have a platform called stylzmag. This is all about supporting culturally diverse service providers e.g., beauty, tailoring and helping them sell and promote their products.

For me, representation is so important. I feel privileged to have grown up in London around so many diverse cultures. But there is still not enough online representation or professional services. It was this that fuelled my desire to launch the stylzmag platform.

How did you come up with the idea for Cultural Style Week?

Cultural Style Week is a worldwide celebration. It gives people the opportunity to participate for the whole week or pick a day to do something significant. Cultural Style Week has been something I have been planning for almost a decade. Before stylzmag, there was another version of it that I wanted to launch at an expo.

But I was young, and I didn’t know how to do it. There was also another bigger event that was similar around the time that launched too, and that intimidated me. But I am glad because I went away and engaged the local community, and talked to people at a grassroots level, and discovered there was an appetite for a celebration that brought people together.

After two years of COVID I decided to launch it this year. The restrictions stopped us from meeting and celebrating together, it felt like this would be a really nice time to celebrate unity, diversity, harmony, and the breadth of the cultural diversity of the diaspora across the world.

Now we have second and third generations. And with each new generation, a little part of their culture is lost because they are trying to fit into what the western world deems as acceptable. This causes cultures to branch off separately. Every culture celebrates in their own way, but there isn’t this one day of celebration that bring us all together.

The date, 21st of May is significant too, as it’s the United Nations World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.

So, I thought it would be an opportunity for the diaspora of the world to come together and celebrate the beauty of cultural diversity.

Could you share the process of organising a week-long event?

It has been one of the most challenging but rewarding journeys of my life so far. I’ve had so many people say no and say why would anybody care. I’ve had sponsors turn me down. It’s been hard, but I feel like when you’re passionate about something, it fuels you to keep going. And because my strengths lie in communications, putting together the video campaign and finding representative groups of people in the UK to be part of that campaign, helped me to visualise what I was trying to say. This has brought bigger people on board and has attracted attention globally too and given it the push it needs.

I only decided in October 2021 to do this, so it was a really fast process.

Your Twitter bio says ”prayer minister”, does this relate to your faith?

I serve within a Christian ministry where the focus is on inner healing and prayer. I am not a certified counsellor, but I come alongside people who are going through emotional difficulties.

What role does your faith play in your work?

It has really helped me to genuinely love people across different faiths, and compels me to celebrate people’s diversity of culture even more. I am not God, it’s not my place to judge anyone.

On the days when I feel like I can’t do it anymore, I feel like I have someone I can give that fear to. I feel like I am not alone when I feel completely overwhelmed. So, for me, prayer is a form of talking therapy.

Libertatem.tv is where the other part of me is. It’s my ministry on YouTube.

Diverse cultures are taking part in Cultural Style Week

What core themes are explored during Cultural Style Week?

It’s fashion, hair and beauty. The reason why I use the word style instead of fashion is that I feel like fashion is imposed whereas style is your personal interpretation of something. So, it could be henna, threaded hair or however you style your hair in your culture.

It’s just you boldly embracing a way to celebrate your personal heritage through fashion, hair, or beauty.

What can we expect from Cultural Style Week 2022?

Initially, there was an expo event planned but we had to postpone that until 2023 due to funding.

So, this year it’s an online movement and people can celebrate it in their own way and share it online. There are no physical events planned so, in terms of participation it is just about showcasing and celebrating your own national dress online. We are speaking to churches about cultural style Sunday, and some churches are signing up to host national dress events on Sunday (22nd May) to celebrate the culture of their congregation and the local community.

Across Cultural Style Week, I will be visiting different organisations that are taking part. There will be a series on Instagram LIVE and there will be story takeovers of those who are participating.

How can people get involved?

Everyone is invited to get involved in Cultural Style Week. I have asked people to let me know how they are celebrating cultural style week if it is a public event, e.g., at a restaurant or school, so we can tell others and add it to our calendar of events.

Please get involved and use this as an opportunity to educate yourself, your peers, and celebrate your culture!

How can we find you on social media?

On Instagram, we are @culturalstyleweek, on TikTok @culturalstyleweek and on Twitter @culturalstylewk. Facebook and LinkedIn it’s forward slash culturalstylewk.

Candy is also nominated for the Entrepreneur of Excellence Award. You can vote for her here.

Interview conducted by: Maxine Harrison – a freelance writer and founder of the Remi Reports blog – a blog helping freelance creatives build their business and lifestyle.

All images courtesy Candie-Elie Graham / culturalstyleweek.com