Hello everyone, Lucas Barrow-Townsend here, founder and one of the lead designers at Continent Clothing. Its Black History Month! Every week I will share a little snippet of what I think about during the month. What and who inspires me and how I have embraced my culture.

This week I am going to share with you couple of the Black figures in history that have inspired me in my personal life and Continent Clothing. 

I have to start in very recent history, with the Fresh   Prince of course. I only recently realised how much   Influence this show, its characters, and especially Will had on my life growing up, it has seriously been profound. Back in the 90s the Fresh Prince inspired a new wave of style. Suddenly multi-colored jeans and neon windbreakers were not only acceptable but the new norm. Will's style was a crazy mix of wild colours and prints with a dash of hip hop street style. As with most people around my age, I loved the 'Fresh Prince' and I loved the style on the show. I quickly adopted the style and haven't changed since, just look at the funky street style on offer at Continent Clothing 👊🏾!  

 You will all hopefully recognize Viola Davis from her amazing performances in films such as The Help, How To Get Away With Murder, and Fences. She is just an inspirational woman, who I personally have been following for a long long time, both I and my partner absolutely love her work. She exemplifies the power of courage in the face of pain, the vulnerability in the face of fear, and how living and loving close up leads to true belonging. She has inspired me to truly focus on what I love doing and not to add other people's criticism to my load. Learning this helped me so much at the beginning of Continent Clothing, criticism from friends, family and customers got me down, now I thrive on trying to resolve, improve and grow on any criticism I receive, Its a process that I owe a lot to Viola.