From dressing Beyoncé to winning awards, Aisha Ayensu has shaped fashion in Ghana and around the world for almost two decades. The founder and creative director of Christie Brown discusses taste and style ahead of her upcoming Resort 2026 collection.
Heritage and Creativity
Your brand is named after your grandmother. What lessons did you learn from her?
Aisha: My grandmother taught me the power of being unapologetically yourself. She was blunt, sometimes almost to a fault, but what I appreciate now is that it takes a remarkable level of self-awareness and confidence to let your innermost thoughts leave your mouth without seeking permission from the room. She never edited herself for acceptance. In many ways, Christie Brown is an extension of that lesson.
What’s your favourite part of running Christie Brown?
Aisha: The woman I get to clothe. She remains endlessly fascinating to me.
You work with almost 100 artisans. Do you have a favourite form of craft?
Aisha: Embroidery. I’m obsessed with texture. It’s craftsmanship at its most patient and deliberate, and I could spend hours studying it in all its forms.
How do you stay grounded?
Aisha: I remind myself that I am a steward of this gift, not its owner. I believe each of us arrives here with an assignment. Mine happens to involve creativity, business, culture, and people. My responsibility is to execute it to the best of my ability. If recognition comes along the way, wonderful. But accolades can be terrible compasses.
How does your spirituality guide your creative decisions?
Aisha: I don’t separate spirituality from creativity. It’s one of the ways I experience God. My faith reminds me that beauty has purpose and excellence is worship. Our gifts are meant to serve something larger than ourselves.
What do you do when you need to feel inspired?
Aisha: I leave the noise and immerse myself in disciplines completely unrelated to fashion – art, architecture, anthropology, and African history. The most interesting creative breakthroughs rarely come from looking at more clothes. I’ll spend an afternoon studying the geometry of Sudanese architecture, for example, and somehow find myself designing with renewed clarity. Curiosity is my favourite creative fuel.
Career and Legacy
What movie best describes your life right now?
Aisha: I’ve always had a soft spot for underdog stories. Movies like Hidden Figures resonate deeply with me because they’re not about the loudest person in the room; they’re about quiet excellence, eventually becoming impossible to ignore. I’ve spent almost two decades building Christie Brown. In a world obsessed with overnight success, I’ve found immense power in the long game.
A place that means the most to you?
Aisha: Old Accra, Jamestown. As a proud Ga woman, there’s something profoundly reassuring about belonging to a place with memory. In an era where newness, flashiness, and constant reinvention are celebrated, I find myself drawn to roots, lineage, and heritage.
Top three career highlights?
Aisha: The first is winning Emerging Designer of the Year at the inaugural Arise Fashion Week in South Africa in 2009. It felt like a validation of my vision.
Secondly, designing for Beyoncé’s Mrs Carter World Tour in 2014. More than a decade later, people still reference it, which says a lot about the cultural impact of that moment.
Thirdly, it’s seeing Christie Brown featured in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Not because of the institution itself, but because of what it symbolised. Acknowledgement that African fashion is shaping global fashion history rather than merely participating in it.
Personal Style
Besides Christie Brown, what’s your go-to brand to wear?
Aisha: I’m a Phoebe Philo-era Celine girl at heart, and Bottega Veneta for accessories. That said, Zara has my unwavering loyalty when it comes to basics.
Your favourite dish to eat?
Aisha: My friends and husband tease me about how unapologetically African my palate is. My favourite meal is pig feet stew with rice. And yes, I eat it with my hands.
Your guilty pleasure?
Aisha: Smutty romance novels.
What does luxury mean to you?
Aisha: Luxury is care. It’s the effort invested in making something valuable long before anyone sees the finished product. It’s the thought behind an idea. The craftsmanship behind its execution. The discipline required to do something properly when doing it quickly would be easier. Luxury is an intention made visible. And in a world increasingly optimised for speed, care may be the most luxurious thing of all.
Images: Supplied
