This Black Girls’s Historical past Month, we’re celebrating Magic Makers making daring strikes in entrepreneurship, leisure, and training, and purse designer Cameo de Boré Phillips, the artistic power behind Cameo de Boré clutches, is an ideal match.
Cameo didn’t got down to be a purse designer, however should you ask her now, she’ll let you know it was all the time in her.
“I’m a trend lady,” she instructed BOSSIP. “Whereas I’m not formally skilled, I’ve been a scholar of trend my complete life. I grew up with a really modern mom and grandmother. Simply watching them, they’d this eye for shade, silhouettes; all the things.”
What began round 2014 and 2015 as sketches and trial-and-error DIY initiatives grew to become one thing actual—a bag that wasn’t simply fashionable, however daring and made for girls like her.
“I used to be watching Girlfriends and Intercourse and the Metropolis, and I stored seeing Joan and Toni with these superbly structured purses. I couldn’t discover something prefer it in shops. So I began crafting. I in all probability made 100 horrible variations earlier than I lastly bought it proper,” she mentioned.
That “proper” second got here unexpectedly.
“I had one sitting on the mattress and my husband walked in and mentioned, ‘Yeah, that’s dope.’ That was all I wanted. I wore it to church and the women went wild. From there, it unfold—domestically, then regionally, and now nationally and internationally.”
Her model, Cameo de Boré, is understood for its daring, outsized clutches. However the baggage aren’t outsized simply to make an announcement, however to really work for girls.
“I’m 5, eight and a half [and] I’ve bought some curves on me too,” mentioned Cameo. “And so for me, it’s vital to have a bit that doesn’t get swallowed up by my body and never get misplaced in my collective outfit and all the things I bought occurring.”
She continued,
“I’m an enormous fan of having the ability to put on a bag and never have to carry your cellular phone or your key fob in your arms,” mentioned Cameo. “And so my bag is structured, it’s going to be classc, however there’s just a little little bit of a singular part there. It’s going to hold your cellular phone, your lipstick, your bank cards, your key fob, all of that with ease.”
The whole lot in regards to the model is private, from the sizing to the construction to the spirit of her hometown, East St. Louis.
“My metropolis formed me. It’s small however full of trendy, fearless folks. We had modest means, however we confirmed up in furs, in Louis baggage earlier than it was stylish. Our trend was how we took management.”
That affect exhibits up in each bag she makes, however by no means extra so than within the particular assortment she created in honor of her late mom, Sherry.
“She was essentially the most ladylike girl I’ve ever recognized. She was all the time put collectively, all the time polished, even till her final day.”
Cameo paused her enterprise when her mom was identified with most cancers, turning into her full-time caregiver. After her mom’s passing, she wasn’t positive she’d return to trend in any respect.
“However one thing shifted in me,” she recalled to BOSSIP. “Caring for her and serving to her transition gave me a lot perspective. I grew to become fearless. I assumed, ‘If this didn’t break me, what am I actually afraid of?’”
So she relaunched stronger, extra deliberately, and surrounded by love, together with a particular My Sheri Amour assortment.
“Her title was Sheri [and] she liked the track by Stevie Marvel,” she mentioned, noting how deeply each element was private. “I used to be doubting getting again into issues…after which we have been obtained so properly.”
“That assortment was for her. My daughter, my mother’s nieces, my sisters—they have been all of the fashions. Even the background of the shoot had my mother’s items in it. It was private. And it was so properly obtained. I had been afraid to get again in, however the second I did, doorways began opening.”
Cameo instructed BOSSIP that one factor that by no means will get outdated is seeing her baggage within the arms of different girls, noting that it nonetheless provides her butterflies.
“I scroll Instagram and see somebody rocking my clutch, and it by no means feels regular. It’s wild to assume somebody spent their hard-earned cash on one thing I made with my two arms. I pray over this enterprise day and night time.”
However Cameo’s influence goes far past trend. She’s been a mentor for over twenty years, guiding younger girls since they have been tweens and now watching them turn into leaders, mothers, and businesswomen in their very own proper.
“A few of them are 30 now, and I’ve recognized them since they have been 11. I deal with them like my very own. I find time for them it doesn’t matter what.”
That perception in sisterhood goes each methods.
“I’ve my mentees, however I even have my mentors,” she instructed BOSSIP. “Girls of their 60s and 70s who inform me after I’m out of pocket. I like that. I inform my mentees, ‘I’ll be your bridge, so that you don’t should journey over the identical stones I did.’ However I anticipate the identical honesty in return.”
For Cameo, the actual win is flourishing as a Black feminine entrepreneur, one thing she carved out herself, unapologetically and brilliantly.
“I’m simply honored to take up house. I didn’t come from a household of enterprise house owners. I needed to determine all of it out, no roadmap. And for years, I used to be clapping for everybody else: my good children, my husband. However this? That is mine. That is my time to be celebrated.”
From East St. Louis to girls across the globe, Cameo’s clutches are greater than equipment, they’re a mirrored image of legacy, love, and unapologetic fashion.
