How to Break Into Fashion: Ghanaian Luxury Brand Christie Brown’s Head of Merchandising Vanessa Bannerman

Keeping up with our coverage of phenomenal female entrepreneurs, we sat down with Vanessa Bannerman, Head of Merchandising and Operations at Christie Brown, a Ghanaian luxury womenswear brand, to hear her story on Breaking Into Fashion!

Born and raised in Ghana and Canada, Vanessa met Christie Brown creative director and founder Aisha Ayensu during her high school years. They reconnected in 2007 and brainstormed launching a luxury brand designed for “that modern woman who seeks a true taste of Africa.” During that time period, the fashion industry in Africa was in nascent stages and both women were excited about the notion of building something entrepreneurial.

Although it wasn’t for another 1.5 years when Vanessa officially came on board as Head of Merchandising for the brand, she shared, “In the beginning, it was just me cheering [Aisha] on, I myself wasn’t in the retail industry per se because I worked more on the planning and analysis side. A year and a half after [Aisha] had launched, we sat down again for dinner one Christmas and I said to her I think you have a missing piece of the puzzle…for this passion you have to be turned into a business, we have to come together.” In 2009, Vanessa joined to manage the Merchandising and Operations of the business.

Believe it or not, Vanessa initially had aspirations to become an investment banker. She shared, “I left Ghana when I was 17 years old…and I got a full scholarship for school in Montreal, Canada. I was really hoping to become an investment banker…the further I got, as I finished my finance degree, the more I realized [finance] was what I wanted to do because it was a challenge, but not because I actually cared. It was much more difficult to find a job in Montreal without being fully bi-lingual [French and English].”

Her first lesson: “Find what you really like and find a job in that. If [I could] showcase my passion, I was sure there was someone out there who would forgo the fact that I was not fully bi-lingual and that was retail. In a retail world, nobody cares if you speak French…the question is can you communicate with the people who make clothing.” Vanessa started her career post-university in retail in Canada while managing her start-up role at Christie Brown from a distance. Under the advice of a mentor, she eventually became a merchant for a major retailer in Canada.