We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shaniequa Washington a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Shaniequa, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Coming from one of the largest companies on the Fortune 500, one of the things that I understand is it is the people that make the difference, however, at times, the people were not being treated as the ones who made the difference. As I started my company Zuriel Kingdom Collections, the ultimate desire for my business is to make a community impact, and for my fashion to be statement pieces that start the right conversations of understanding and change.

Shaniequa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

A little about me is simply a girl dreaming her way through life and as I look back I can see I’ve been very blessed. As early as the age of five standing on the stage with Liza Minnelli as my dad was her bodyguard introduced me to a world of expression. Being exposed to and understanding individual impact at an early age became a clear desire as I navigated life. When I graduated from high school, in NYC I thought for sure, Shaniequa nursing is your lane, graduating from the nursing program at Marist College in upstate NY, I was ready to live my best life until I was placed in ER and thought what kind of life is this? The chaos, death constantly I was so unsettled! We hear about the silver lining and I would say that nursing taught me compassion and understanding. Even though nursing did not become my optimal career path, it was a part of the path of connecting and building and until navigating the paths of my dreams, I did not realize how important of an impact it made in who I have become. One thing that always worked for me was fashion, at an early age I was spray painting sneakers, redesigning jeans, and sweatshirts, and making outs fits for the school step team, this never dying passion led me to love retail and in particular fashion. This love introduced me to Walmart where I found myself on the fast track in leadership and before I knew it was operating in a senior leadership position managing teams of 400- 600 associates which clearly shaped me to serve. 24 years of dedicated service, in the largest company in the world, and yet I still was unfulfilled, one would say girl what is wrong with you, but the systemic challenges that I fought daily on behalf of myself and others constantly were a place of unrest with me. It’s still clear as day when I understood my purpose and individual impact as I stood in the middle of a market in Kumasi, West Africa talking with an underprivileged woman who was trying to start a fashion school to teach a trade to young women from the local villages to provide a source of income and end the relentless rape they faced on a constant basis! It was in that small moment of my life that the largest illumination happened and I knew I had to dare myself to be different! Launching Dare To Be Different NGO in Africa, led me to my desire to get behind the sewing machine and sew garments that would spark bold conversations about being different and what it means to make a true difference. 2020 the world changed and I changed with it, it was the first year of Juneteenth being honored as a national holiday, the year that the horrific tragedy of George Floyd’s death opened the eyes of the world to the endless cycles of injustice and the year I left corporate to pursue a life of community change through fashion.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The biggest lesson that I had to unlearn is that everyone cares, everyone feels what I feel, and own the fact that everyone does not think that inclusion is relevant.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I come from place of inclusion and working alongside those that are willing to go into places and spaces to bring about change

Contact Info:

• Website: www.zurielkingdomcollections.com
• Instagram: Zurielkingdomcollections
• Facebook: Zurielkingdomcollections
• Other: Shaniequalwashington personal Instagram and Facebook

Image Credits
@tamiphotography @seanevansphotography