Celia Sears has been paving the way for what Black Female Fashion entrepreneurship looks like in Italy since she moved to Milan in 1999. West-Indian Canadian, she has been blessed with an uncanny ability to seize pivotal moments in our industry and tap into the heart of their development. Whether it be collaborating with M.A.C. founders Frank Toskan and Frank Angelo early in the nascent stages of the now global brand’s existence; to participating in the birthing and guiding of Vogue Italy’s Vogue Black online project; or more recently, to creating a master class, Inclusive Backstage, to address the long-known but oft-ignored lack of preparedness in beauty and hair professionals when it comes to BIPOC models and talents. I sat down with the Show Division founder at her gem of a home on the Naviglio Grande in Milan to delve into her impressive treasure chest of experience and bring you Pretty Birds a glimpse of her path to the important work she is doing today. Please join me in getting to know her - I know you’ll fall in love.

Tamu McPherson: 

Celia, tell us about your background. From being a West Indian-Canadian, your days as a model, and your days as a CEO of Show Division.

Celia Sears:

I was born in England and grew up in Canada. Our family immigrated to Canada when I was eight years old, and then we moved to a place called Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, which is in the middle of nowhere. The only Black people around, the first time we saw snow and so on. Then we moved to Toronto, and I lived in Toronto until I was 35. 

I started modeling in the early 80s, when I was 16. It was something I always knew I wanted to do, from when I was probably about 11 years old - I always had this passion. When I was 16, I remember going to a big agency in Toronto with my mom. And, their saying, “well, you know what, we already have a Black girl. So, you know, unfortunately we wouldn't be able to take you on.” I mean, I didn't let that discourage me. That was still something I wanted to do.

Tamu McPherson:

Modern Toronto is a very multicultural place. How was it at this point, when you were 16?

Celia Sears: 

It was absolutely multicultural. That didn't change. I think the difference between then and now is the quantity of ethnicities that one would see in any given advertisement. They were few and far between. So for an agency, if they had one or two Black girls, they fit their quota, so to speak. And so, if you wanted to go to a great agency, you were up against the top Canadian models just to walk in the door. 

But anyway, I didn't let that disturb me. I went forward and I did finally find an agency. I worked in Toronto. One of my first jobs was actually with M.A.C. cosmetics. When M.A.C. started, literally, there were two guys, Frank and Frank, and they wanted to start a makeup line. My sister had a company called the Canadian Fashion Alliance, which supported young designers with marketing, putting on fashion shows, you know, setting up a showroom for them and selling. And so when she was doing these fashion shows, M.A.C. - Frank and Frank - said, “Hey, look, I got some product, do you want to give it a shot?” So they would come and actually do the hair and makeup.

So we were testing M.A.C. products before M.A.C. was even a thing. And then from there, I became one of their house models because they had a hair line - they developed one of the first black hair lines, in the late 80s.

Tamu McPherson: 

I had no clue!

Celia Sears:

It was with Gladys Knight. So I was working with Gladys Knight and the M.A.C. team on this hair brand, and once a week, Gladys would come in and they'd get me in and they'd do my hair. They’d have me test out a whole bunch of products. And I did this for probably about a year. Oh my gosh. Maybe even two, I can't even remember. I was actually in one of the very, very, very first campaigns that M.A.C. ever did.

Tamu McPherson: 

Wow. 

Celia Sears:

And so that was probably my biggest job in Toronto. That's for sure. Which probably has more weight to it now than it did back then. 

So I modeled, and then after I finished, I got married when I was 21. And at that point I gave up my (modeling) career, I got pregnant, I have two beautiful girls. I started working at a modeling agency, and I basically was helping new models to get their portfolios together and get themselves to the actual booking board. I was the head of the new faces division - that's what they called it back then. After that, I had the opportunity to go on the other side of it, to become a stylist in a commercial studio. And so every kind of catalog you can think of, I worked on it. I was the stylist for everything from the Hudson Bay Company, even Sears. 

Tamu McPherson: 

Huge commercial portfolio.

Celia Sears: 

That basically was my bread and butter back in the day and in 1999, I met somebody from Italy who said ‘you should think about coming, you know?’ And so I thought, Okay, well, let me just go check it out, take some of the knowledge that I would see at the fashion shows back to my clients in Toronto and just to, you know, jazz it up, modernize things a bit. 

And when I got here, I fell in love with Milan. I really did. And I decided that I would give it a shot. You know, being a big fish in a small pond in Toronto is one thing. And Toronto is filled with so many talented people that even if you're good at what you do, you really don't have a good sense of it until you leave. 

So I came here and I started to work as a fashion stylist and fashion editor. I did that for at least 10 years. My claim to fame, in terms of styling here, was working on the Vogue Black issue. I was one of the fashion editors for Vogue Black online for a good few years, and I did a series of videos and photo shoots for Vogue Black in Toronto. And that for me was the point where I said, okay, that for me is a pinnacle. I've done it. And so I started thinking about, what else am I gonna do? And this is when I started to think about how I could start my own show division.

And that was the birth of Show Division, in 2015.

So in May 2015 we went live, and I started getting some clients together, and started putting some people together. And seven years later, we are the number one supplier of backstage artistic support and logistics.

Tamu McPherson: 

Globally. Congratulations! And, you know, it's a testament to what a Black woman can do: wherever she is, to identify the need of the client and really build a business based on that need. 

Tamu McPherson: 

There's so many things that I didn't even know about your experience and you're blowing me away. 

I wanna just get into the hair routine part of our conversation, because a lot of what we're going to be doing on the site now is really talking about routine, and routines that inform us and our lives and impact who we are. I wanted to ask you, how have your relationships with women in your family informed your hair care and, perhaps similarly relationships with men, have they left any impressions on you on your perspective of your hair?

Celia Sears:

I mean, I was the youngest of three sisters. So being the youngest, I hated getting my hair combed, much less anything else. I remember my sisters literally holding me down and taking the comb and going through it. 

I think I was probably about 15 years old the first time I got a perm. And before that it was just all natural. I kept my hair really short. My mother also has exactly the same sort of style as you: super short. And my oldest sister, she has dreads, Theresa has got the little perm and Rosie has like this, this wild Afro. The routine of what we do just came out of watching my mom, watching other women, seeing how they looked, even in magazines. One thing I always remember is that we always had Ebony and Essence magazine. So you go through and think, wow, she's so beautiful. 

My sisters as well, they'd see something and try to recreate it with their rollers or whatever it is that they were using, or braids or anything like that.

Tamu McPherson: 

Can you share some of the formative experience that helped define your path or inspire you to advocate for a more equitable industry?

This might be your experience in watching the young women who you are helping now, or the artists that you are championing for their education to be able to do all types of hair, not just Caucasian hair. 

For instance, I have witnessed firsthand you developing your braiding teams. Like you were calling friends, you were calling people with natural hair, and you were not calling the lowest hanging fruit, like that famous person you were calling, who is working in the shops, that can teach and educate.

Celia Sears: 

That's exactly it. I got people on Instagram. I was looking for somebody who's like, a New York braider, a braider in Milan. A lot of these girls are home braiders.  It’s a cottage industry, and this is their little side action. I've opened up a world to them: you can take this skill and actually take it backstage at a major fashion show and make some money off of it. Aside from the little money that you're making braiding in your house. So what I feel good about is that there's a 100-150 women out there who were just braiding in their basements, or in their house, just to make their little side hustle, who are now requested backstage at the top shows globally.

Tamu McPherson:

You have always been working to make sure that backstage was a friendly and professional place for BIPOC talent. And the pandemic and the social unrest occur and we start to organize, can you tell me how your background really solidified your work and brought that service forward to where you are today?

Celia Sears: 

When George Floyd happened, there were so many questions. There are so many unanswered questions, and it brought up a feeling that something needs to change. I can't do anything about George Floyd, but within my industry, what can I do? And I knew what the issues were. Everyone knew what the issues were in terms of what's happening backstage. 

I thought, I've got to put pen to paper, I've got to start to email people and let them know that there is an issue. But before I got into the issue, I needed to find a solution, especially when you're speaking about difficult situations, especially when they're race-based.

It's a series of problems with no solutions. So for me, it was very much about a solution-based conversation around what I do or what we do within the industry. Yes, we all know that there is an issue in terms of what's happening backstage. It has been documented. And also at that point of time, there are many models who are also going on the record saying, ‘they burnt my hair’ or ‘they don't know what they're doing’, or ‘I have to go backstage or go in the bathroom and fix’, and these are top girls. So I thought, okay, it's time. And the solution is education. It's not rocket science. If there are issues backstage, in terms of the models feeling less than because those who are supposedly professional are unable to do the job on them.

That means that there's a lack of education somewhere, so let's fix it. So that's when we created the inclusive backstage programs for hair and for makeup. And I reached out to everyone. Especially in the U.S. And they were happy for me to write articles or blog posts, but when it came to doing something real, there was less movement. 

Tamu McPherson:

But then you brought it to Europe, where you did see traction.

Celia Sears: 

I live in Milan. So I brought it to Camera Moda and right away, they were like, well, of course it makes sense. Let's do it. And we did our first program in September: huge success.

Tamu McPherson: 

How is your education program laid out?

Celia Sears: 

It's a two day master class, Inclusive Backstage, for hair and for makeup. We talk about everything from the history of Black hair, the importance, the culture, even just the basics. This is how you blow dry. This is how you touch. This is how you wash. This is how you recreate the curl pattern. These are the products that you need to use. So that if a Black model sits in front of you, you have some semblance of an idea what to do, as opposed to no idea. 

Tamu McPherson: 

I think both of us know, living here in Italy, sometimes in this country, the intimidation is what really blocks people.

Celia Sears: 

Yes, absolutely. And so once you're in a neutral space where everybody knows, it's okay, you're here to learn. It doesn't matter if you make a mistake. It doesn't matter. We're going to go through this. You've got two days to get some of the basics down. So we did basic braiding, as well. The other part of our program is that they take home a head of Afro-textured hair so that they can practice at home, so that when they're backstage they'll know exactly what to do.

Tamu McPherson: 

So, you're actually changing people's perspective! Because at the end of the day, you think about it, you're a young hairstylist, are you gonna invest in a straight hair head? Or are you gonna invest in that curly hair afro-textured hair? Because those heads are costly!

Celia Sears:

Exactly. I mean, they are costly, but, but part of the cost of the program is you need to walk out of there with an Afro-textured head for you to practice on when you're at home. 

And then the other part that I like is these hairdressers realize they can actually make money from this.  We, as Black women, are the largest consumers of hair and hair products - I think before 2019 it was something like $16 billion.

Tamu McPherson: 

We're talking about billions in Black hair care. Because it goes back to our rituals. 

Tamu McPherson: 

There was so much momentum immediately after George Floyd, during the pandemic, during the protests, with companies promising to change, promising to invest in change. And now that the world is opening up, now that we can go outside, now that the economy is picking up, how can we keep the momentum going with this conversation with these programs, with this investment?

Celia Sears: 

It's persistence at the end of the day. It's being consistent and persistent. We can't let up just because Camera Moda made a commitment to continue to run these programs. I gotta make sure that the British Fashion Council, FHCM and the CFDA follow through and do the same. If I can make sure at least the big four make the commitment to having, every season, some form of educational program for darker skin tones and textured hair, then I feel like I'm doing my job. But I have to make sure that we continue to knock on those doors. I have to make sure that we are out there because if I do that, I might inspire somebody else to do something else. And that's a chain reaction.

Tamu McPherson: 

You are planting the seeds for the future.

Celia Sears: 

This is my legacy. What I'm doing now is what I will leave behind. And there will be several doors open for, hopefully, a myriad of people coming through. And whether they want to be models or whether or not they want to be a hair stylist or a makeup artist with the knowledge that I have, I hope to be able to bring that legacy of working at a high level, knowing that you belong there and also just doing the best you can. Knowing that your best is okay, it's enough. Yes. That was, that was the other thing that we learned: your best is never enough.

Tamu McPherson:

So as Black creatives, as creators, designers, we are expected to be operating at peak creative talent at all times. And we are never excused from the political landscape, the news. And especially from aggression within the industry. How do you balance these outside expectations with your personal preservation?

Celia Sears: 

Ah, now that's a bingo question right there. I struggle with that one every day. I go through times where I think I'm obsessed. I have to have the mindset of an obsessive person in order to do what I have to get done and do it right. Because doing it right is everything. You can do anything, but you gotta do it. Cuz most of the time you only have one shot. 

You know, especially as a Black woman, as a Black creative, you got one shot. If you got half a foot in the door, you make sure that you step right. And so I have spent my entire career and life with outrageous expectations of myself, whether it be on a personal or a professional level. And now at the tender age of 55, I'm thinking, fuck it. I'm good enough. I don't have to prove anything anymore. My work will speak for itself. And so having the conversation with myself and being kinder to myself, that's what I'm trying to do.

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