Empower couple
"Fashion is empowering," John Williams says. "It allows me to embrace who I am, and I believe it has the ability to do this for others." It was with that spirit that the accounting student and Ghanaian immigrant founded the fair-trade apparel company Gyetum—which means "to embrace" in the Ghanaian language Akan—to encourage black and African people to accept "who we really are," says Williams, pictured with his girlfriend Lesan Mattis. "It seems like these days we are always looking to be accepted by others, changing the way we dress, speak, trying to fit in, and assimilating to other cultures that aren't our own. But why would we need others to embrace us if we already embrace ourselves?"
Originally published in the Chicago Reader.
