Briana Shaneè Wilson, owner of Matte. Image via @eenahsanairb

“Canceling people is a myth,” says Briana Shaneè Wilson, the founder and designer of Matte. She would know because she has been “canceled” before. In April, before the drop of her new “Matte 1992” collection, Briana shared some polarizing opinions about mental health in the time of coronavirus on Twitter. She tweeted about checking in on friends and not giving into fear during the quarantine. Some people called her irresponsible. When Briana and I talked in May, she told me, “If everyone has to hate me, but one person gets one thing that helps them care more about their mental health or their friends’ mental health, then that’s all that matters.”

After five years of building her clothing brand Matte, Briana has established herself as someone who dares to think different. She does not waver in her beliefs, even when they are unpopular.

That self-confidence is evident in the fact that Briana names herself the muse of Matte. She’s never looked toward an ideal other than her own essence to guide her creative spirit.

In the age of cancel culture and angry online mobs, many would back peddle after catching heat online, but that tension seems to fuel Briana, who uses her platform more and more to speak her mind. Just before the launch of “1992,” Briana hopped on the phone from Los Angeles to talk divine timing, building a sexy brand, and living authentically — whether it’s popular or not.

AMIRAH MERCER: Is everything you design something that you wanted in your closet but couldn’t find?

BRIANA SHANEÈ WILSON: Yeah, exactly — everything. Matte is known for certain things now — you can get a bodysuit anywhere now — but when I started it, you really couldn’t find bodysuits like that. The only place I could find a bodysuit was American Apparel. I was like, ‘Damn, I want a velvet bodysuit, I want a zebra-print bodysuit. I don’t see it anywhere else, and I think it would be really cute, so I’m going to make it.’

AMIRAH: What are you working on now that isn’t anywhere else but in your head, so you’re bringing it to life?

BRIANA: I’m dropping an album with my next collection and I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. 10.Deep made an album with Kid Cudi, but it wasn’t exactly the same thing as what I’m doing. Artists don’t realize the amount of buying power they create online. By merging the two [fashion and music] and being able to tour, it’s going to be cool to watch how you can take an audience that you’ve built such a connection with and give them more than just clothes.

AMIRAH: It’s like you’re basically creating a whole universe — the Matte universe.

BRIANA: Yeah. It’s really cool because the collection is 90s and the music is going to be 90s themed.

Matte 1992 collection. Image via @eenahsanairb

AMIRAH: With your public persona, do you pick one side of yourself to show or do you try to capture all the different sides of yourself?

BRIANA: One reason I’m lucky is because I already had 100,000 followers before I started Matte — so I was already known for not wearing a bra, I was already known for being a girl that was very risky. At the same time, I used to be a person who thought my platform was not the place [for my opinion]. But now I find a sense of activism and freedom in using your platform to say what you believe in and support what you need to express.

As much as people like my clothes, I feel like I also have a really big following because of the books I read and the type of things that I tweet. I’ve always been vocal like that. Lately, my opinion is not one of the majority share, so people have been asking me: ‘Do you think this is the place for you to speak your mind and even say that? Is this really a place for your customers?’ And to that I respectfully say, ‘My brand page is for my customers.’ Nothing that I say is ever to be hateful or to be mean. Everything I say is from love, but I do understand that some of the things I say might trigger people and they might not completely understand me.

AMIRAH: What exactly were you sharing?

BRIANA: Last month, I was saying things that people didn’t like, and everyone was canceling me because I thought social distancing was inhumane — and I still stand by that. I understand how it is one type of solution. I still just think it’s weird. People are supposed to be around people, and the fact that we’re not allowed to be around people is not normal. A lot of people got mad and were threatening like, ‘We’re not going to shop with you anymore,’ and I was like, I think that’s very privileged of you to try and force me into silence by saying you’re not going to shop with me anymore.

A lot of what I’m low-key preaching about is faith-based. Everything that I’m talking about goes back to having faith. So when people say things like that, it’s like, yo, you didn’t make me, you didn’t make me who I am. I received blessings and you can’t take it away from me. When people challenge me like that, it’s a time for me to exercise my faith even more. And I’m proud of myself for holding my faith and standing my ground. I’m never too great to apologize if someone said I hurt their feelings, but ultimately I know what I’m saying and I really believe in what I’m saying, so I’m not going to change what I’m saying. I had a sale last Thursday and I made $15,000 in an hour. So I think canceling people is a myth. The more that people say how they feel, the more we can all grow. Social media is turning into a place where, if you’re a free thinker and you don’t think like the majority, then you’re canceled. If the majority is so right, then they should focus on educating people instead of canceling them, because what’s the point of that? It’s not very emotionally intelligent.

AMIRAH: I feel like your perspective is ahead of its time, so I understand why people don’t understand what you’re saying. People are so fearful, and with the mind-body connection, that fear will have a negative effect on everything — both your mental health and your physical health. Fear is —

BRIANA: The virus.

AMIRAH: Yeah, for real.

BRIANA: This is not normal times, and I’m watching how people are dying, and it’s not cool. To me, if everyone has to hate me, but one person gets one thing that helps them care more about their mental health or their friends’ mental health, then that’s all that matters. I don’t need this following. So I’m not afraid to lose it. I actually was thinking the other day that selling the clothing collection without the clutch of my following would be a cool little experiment. I feel like I’d try to get into more retail stores and use more cool ads and be in front of the ad market. People don’t realize that whatever you give power to is real. This has happened to me before where I let people get in my head and I let them ruin my day and it was just taking over my mind for months — literally. And I saw a decline in my sales. But I feel like keeping my confidence has really made a difference. And I literally just started a sale right now and it was crazy, like within the first eight minutes.

AMIRAH: It’s a natural law that if you are authentic to yourself, then you’re going to be successful. There’s no way you can fail if you’re real.

BRIANA: At the end of the day, people have to live with the way they feel. I have to live with the way I feel and that’s what’s most important to me. No matter how successful you are, if you have to lie and live with that, then you’re not really successful.

AMIRAH: Why do you think so many people forget to explore themselves? People are so concerned about what other people think and it really doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about yourself.

BRIANA: Well, I think it’s just what we grow up in, it’s what we’re trained to know. No one is speaking anything about faith, everything seems scarce. If you don’t know what I know, then it feels like a dog-eat-dog world. People are scared. That is literally all it takes. When you are in panic mode — and people don’t realize how often you are in panic mode — but when you are, you just can’t think clearly. You’re going to start snapping on people. People feel like, right now, following is the way and they have to be very likable to get followers.

AMIRAH: What’s the best part about being your own muse?

BRIANA: You love everything that you do. There’s no arguing to me about my brand and there’s a lot of people who have things to say. My mom, she’s like, ‘No one can wear that, only girls your size can wear that.’ She’s been saying that the whole five years [of Matte], but people definitely are like, ‘Why don’t you make the dresses longer?’ And I’m like, it’s literally what I like. When I go to Zara and I go into the vintage store, I have to modify everything, so when it comes to Matte, I want it to be exactly how I want it to be. Anything that someone spends a lot of time on, and really executes their vision, someone else will really like it. A lot of times people will make something and it’s not that good, and then they’re like, ‘No one bought it,’ but they probably didn’t spend that much time on it. When you really put love into what you do, that’s when it comes out as art, and then someone somewhere will appreciate it.

Briana Shaneé Wilson. Image via @eenahsanairb

AMIRAH: How has being your own muse helped your creative process and your overall self-confidence?

BRIANA: It just makes it very easy for me to do everything. When I do a photo shoot, I do photo shoots in an hour, like an hour before something drops, and I can do it in my sleep at this point because it’s just me. I know exactly how I want the models to pose. We don’t need a lot of accessories — the clothes pretty much speak for themselves, and I think that overall, I’ve kind of created an aesthetic, which makes it extremely easy to keep going because you have a foundation to lean on. My aesthetic is pretty much sexiness. I love being sexy and a lot of different things are sexy to me. Baggy clothes are sexy to me, too.

AMIRAH: Do you feel like you have leaned into your sexiness even more as a creative entrepreneur?

BRIANA: I’ve definitely leaned more into it. I’ve learned a lot this year. I’m 27 now, and I’ve learned a lot about really being myself and standing on my fucking toes. Like, ‘I do this, I do this, I post my ass on Instagram, and yes, I’m going to make a million dollars.’ I feel like I’ve really grown into that.

AMIRAH: What’s the secret to a popping selfie?

BRIANA: I take a lot of video selfies. You put the camera down, and you step away, you put the timer on — and I prefer video, you know, it lets these hoes know it’s not Photoshopped. [Laughs] But I really just set my phone up now, and I feel like I take a better picture that way with the front camera facing me versus asking someone to take a picture of me or taking a selfie. I like to get the whole outfit, the body.

AMIRAH: Have you had to adapt your business to the coronavirus?

BRIANA: Yes, it’s funny because someone wrote to me like, ‘It’s not affecting you,’ and I’m like, you are so privileged to feel like this is not affecting me. What do you mean? It’s affecting EVERYone. There’s no one. I think I commented back like, ‘Drake is affected by this.’ Everyone is affected by this, bro, literally, there’s no way around it.

For the first two years of Matte, I produced in L.A., and the next two years I produced in China, and I just started back doing production in L.A. in January 2019, so I was doing both L.A. and China all 2019. And then weirdly me and my Chinese manufacturer got into a little disagreement in November of 2019, so I moved all my production to L.A., and luckily I did that, because if not...like if this would’ve happened in 2019, I would be so broke. I would’ve already spent $20,000 on a collection, already been selling it making money off of it and I would’ve had to refund all those customers. It would’ve been crazy. And I know a lot of companies are going through that.

This has been some of the best time for me, honestly. I’m the most organized, the most focused. Honestly I really wouldn’t have even said this before corona, but I give it all to God. I really do. Because I just really see how my faith and me being proactive and trying to create my reality has saved me. I started reading a really good book, A Happy Pocket Full of Money, that helped me change my mindset in February, and I 100 percent say that it helped me to make $50,000 in the first week of March. Before we even knew we were about to go on lockdown, I paid all my debt off. I had $23,000 in debt to pay, so before that I was so broke. I’d be making some good ass money every week, but when you have so much debt, you have to pay for it. So beginning of March I made $50,000 in a week, and I was able to pay all my debt off, which I wouldn’t have done if I had known it was corona. But see, God thinks better than I do. I paid all my debt off and then I was able to just chill and not stress at all. I’ve been so good with money that I’ve been helping everyone I can. I feel like that’s the reason I have it, and I’ve been able to be clearheaded enough to make sure I don’t create a habit of depression and that I keep planning for the future, and because I’ve been doing that, I feel like I’ve planned the collection that is going to change my life.

AMIRAH: I love it! Divine timing is real. You might not understand why you’re making those decisions at the time, but then it makes sense, and you didn’t really have to think about it too much, you just had to follow your heart.

BRIANA: Exactly, that’s why I’m telling a lot of people that this time is very personal. It’s very unique to everyone. I was depressed last year, and I spent a lot of time at home, but I feel like in that time, I did a lot of the work with my friendships and with myself that a lot of people are doing now, and I think that’s necessary. Even me and my mom right now are in therapy, and I know so many people that are having issues come up. I feel for everybody. I even feel everybody that’s mad at me. Please put that in here. I understand your perspective. I get that people are really dying. I get that it’s stressful. I understand mental health more than anything, so I know. One of the things I’ve really learned in this time is that there cannot be a solution until there’s a problem first. That’s just the way life works. So when people stop looking at problems as the end of the road, and you start looking at it like, Okay, cool, this is just something that I clearly felt that energy, didn’t like that, now how do you make this better? Period. That’s how you move forward.

Themes: On faith, self-confidence, authenticity, divine timing, self-love

Matte’s Briana Shaneè Wilson on the Business of Being Your Own Muse