In a strange way, Kissa Thompson can credit her grandmother for the success of her company.
When she went natural a decade ago, the response from her Southern grandmother was less than positive.
‘She didn’t like my hair,’ Thompson recalls. ‘To her, it was frizzy and unruly. She said ‘Do something with your hair.”Thompson did do something, but not to her hair. Five years ago, she launched ButtaFly Unlimited, a line of inspiring t-shirts, hats and more. One of the company’s most popular shirts boasts ‘I Love My Hair.’ Other hot sellers are emblazoned with the words ‘Free Your Soul,’ ‘Be a Leader’ and Be Unlimited.’
‘It speaks to a lot of people,’ Thompson says.In a world where clothes scream out company logos, Thompson believes that ‘if you’re going to wear something, it should mean something.’ The company’s entire philosophy is about loving who you are.
‘That’s what our shirts are about,’ she says. ‘Buttafly Unlimited wants to inspire those who wear the designs to love themselves and be proud of who they are. Everyone has some issue. We want to encourage people to love who they are.’
The 30-year-old Brooklyn entrepreneur hasn’t always felt comfortable with her own look. Her mother didn’t know how to work with her hair and she did a lot of experimenting. She began seeing people with natural hair and began cutting her relaxed hair shorter and shorter. She says she loves her natural hair now.
‘There’s nothing like the versatility of natural hair,’ she says. ‘Once you go straight, it’s straight.’Her t-shirts aren’t trendy, and have a simple, old-fashioned feel to them. She believes they are the type of t-shirts you can wear forever. She regularly changes the colors and designs.
The response to the t-shirts has been overwhelmingly positive, says Thompson, who also designs jewelry. She has gotten orders from around the world.
When she wears her shirts, ‘People will say ‘I love your hair too,” she says. Thompson plans to expand into films, a newsletter and children’s books.
‘Our philosophy is to wear stuff that represents your soul,’ Thompson says. ‘Buttafly is the metamorphosis of the individual. And Unlimited represents the unlimited possibilities of life.’ ‘It’s not about clothes,’ she says. ‘It’s about having a voice.’.
