Not-so-average: Arethabelle E. Smith, Head of Logistics at Shekudo

“I like to define myself as a storyteller in the sense that I found that I do enjoy telling stories of all forms,” said Arethabelle E. Smith when asked the question, ‘who are you?’ “Over the last couple of years, I would say that the story that I’m most passionate about sharing tends to be about the African narrative - what it means to be African, what it means to come from Africa,” she said. “Just how to push that narrative forward has been my main interest.” As the Head of Logistics and brand representative of Shekudo - a shoe and accessories brand produced in Lagos, Nigeria - Smith is ensuring her work reigns true to pushing the African narrative.

How did you get to work in fashion?

In 2021 Smith made her way to France from Lagos, Nigeria to study political humanities with a minor in international relations, at the university Sciences Po.

“That was essentially where fashion found me,” she said. “I’ve always been very creative. I’ve always expressed that creativity through more of performing arts, like theater, dance, writing - that’s always been my outlet. But I found that fashion, of course, is another creative outlet; it’s another way to tell stories.”

While in school, a woman who owns a consulting company reached out to Smith with the thought that she was studying fashion. The woman was traveling to Paris for Paris Fashion Week and needed assistance. “She was working with a company at the time called Birimian and they sort of put a narrative on elevating African brands on the global stage,” Smith said. “It was a chance to work with them during Paris Fashion Week. And I said, ‘why not?’”

After working with Birimian for five months, “I just kept getting more opportunities.” “The more opportunities came, the more I started to say ’maybe this is something that I want to do, maybe this is something that I’ve been called to do,” Smith said. As a result she continued to pursue more fashion-related opportunities. In 2022 one of those opportunities stemmed from a former coworker at Birmian who introduced her to Akudo Iheakanwa, the creative director of Shekudo. Iheakanwa was in search of an assistant for Paris Fashion Week and hired Smith.

The following year she decided to pursue her second Bachelor's degree from Columbia University in African History requiring her to relocate to New York. After learning about her move, Iheakanwa reached out to her stating that Shekudo wanted to expand into the New York space and the African-American market. She then hired Smith as a full-time remote assistant. Two months after Smith was hired as a remote assistant, she was promoted to her current role.

What’s your current fashion job?

“I am the head of logistics for Shekudo,” said Smith. “I also represent the brand itself at trade shows, Fashion Week, pop ups, both nationally and internationally.” As the head of logistics for Shekudo, her main duties include the following: organizing and executing projects; overseeing tasks such as international productions in their Portugal factories; coordinating with factories to ensure smooth delivery of purchase orders; logistic planning for international deliveries; communicating with wholesale partners and clients regarding production and delivery; and managing international inventory.

In addition, she is also a brand representative for other brands such as V Belan - a New York-based jewelry brand.

What does an average work day look like?

“Most of my days are quite remote,” she said. Many members of the Shekudo team are based in Nigeria, and there are others located internationally meaning that “when I wake up, the day has already begun in [those] parts of the world.” After she’s awake she has emails and messages to rummage through, “sort of catching up.” “The same way they were catching up as I was finishing off [my] day before, and so a lot of it’s just going through emails [and] messages, figuring out what’s priority and going through that to-do list,” Smith said. She added that each day is different depending on what season they’re in. “For instance, [if] there’s a shipment [going out], which is, as logistics head, primarily the department that I oversee, there’s a retailer that we’re shipping to and so it’s me essentially trying to coordinate the shipment to wherever it’s supposed to go,” she said. This can involve many parts such as using the EDI system where she has to arrange all the shipments that she’s packing, and ensuring shipments are packed a specific way that is compliant with what the receiver asked for due to each brand having their own requirements. “You’re trying to create tracking, you’re working with the specific courier or freight service, and trying to organize and pick up the shipment,” she said. “You’re working with people in the factory or the workshop trying to make sure that they pack everything correctly.” Overall, there’s a lot of back and forth, she said. “Being remote, a lot of it is me sending 100 emails and having calls just trying to get the shipment out, tracking it, [and] keeping everyone updated. So if that’s the season, that’s usually what’s happening,” Smith added. If they’re planning for an event her duties for the day can include running errands, preparing, setting up, and getting all the material needed. All in all, “the average day to day is just emails, calls, catching up and trying to ensure everything runs smoothly.”

A word of career advice

“Working in fashion is not limited to just everything that we think it is,” Smith said. “There’s many job roles, there’s many avenues for you to explore even if that doesn’t mean creating your own brand and being a designer or traditional model.”

She added that through her story, although it is still fresh and ongoing, one thing she’s learned is to not be afraid to try new opportunities, “even if it’s not what fits [the] traditional path that you’re on.” Furthermore, there’s a lot of pressure, she said, to have everything figured out - especially when you’re young. “But the truth is that no one really knows what they’re doing, and a lot of us are still trying to figure it out,” she expressed. “And that’s OK. Don’t be consumed by that, just do whatever feels right to you at the time and understand that it’s OK to not know what you’re doing. If we all knew what we were doing before we did something, no one would ever try anything.”