Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Howard chapter.

Now, this is what you call reclaiming our culture. 

20-year-old Black designer Atira Lyons has opened the first luxury durag store this past week. The grand opening on September 4th at 4:44 PM, has been highly anticipated by loyal customers for months.  Back in March, Lyons first announced via Twitter that she had purchased a former dispensary on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles–which would become a store for her clothing brand: Atira Lyons Label. The store, completely finished and furnished with a wall of durags, is breathtaking to say the least.

The wall filled with durags in brown and nude colors is such a gorgeous touch and a site for sore eyes!

Lyons is a designer with many talents and interests. She’s an all-around designer and plans to release both an apparel and furniture collection; she has been known to dabble with bikinis and dresses as well. 

Thanks to her durags and fashion designs that have gone viral numerous times, Atira Lyons has garnered a following of over 132,000 Instagram followers. She has worked hard to secure space for her brand on several social media platforms. As the originator of the “Velvet Durag Trend”, Lyons has also garnered a loyal following on Twitter as well. Although she is best known for her durags, Lyons proclaims that a larger selection of items will be offered in the future. 

Lyons’ grand opening is huge, especially since the number of active small business owners has decreased greatly since the onset of COVID-19. From February to April 2020, the number of Black business owners fell by a whopping 41%–the largest on record. Against the odds, Lyons made her life-long dream a reality. 

Her success is completely self-made. Lyons announced on Twitter that she put up her own money to fund her store, taking out no loans at all. The success of Atira Lyons Label has garnered the attention of many well-known news sources such as BET, The Grio, and The Shade Room. 

The implications of Atira Lyons’ luxury durag line are more than just surface-level. Durags and headwraps have long since been the Black community’s go-to for protecting their waves and curls. It is so important that spaces are created for items like these, which have been seen as “ghetto” or “unprofessional” to those who don’t understand the features of the fabric and the purpose they serve. 

 

Atira Lyons’ story is truly inspiring. It’s wonderful to see Black women working hard to make their dreams come true, and achieving success amidst the many obstacles we face as a community. To all the small business-owners out there, don’t let anyone deter you from following your dreams. If Atira Lyons can reach success, so can you!

 

Camryn Clanton

Howard '21

Camryn Clanton is a rising junior at Howard University with a Political Science major and Philosophy minor. She's a city girl through and through, having been born and raised in Chicago. She has enjoyed writing since an early age, but a few of her other interests are music and foreign language (been learning Mandarin for 7 years). In the future, Camryn hopes to combine her passions for law and foreign language by pursuing the field of international law. Camryn's main goal with her writing is to inspire, encourage, and uplift the women around her.
Jamiya Kirkland is a senior Biology major, Sociology and Afro-American studies minor from PG County, MD