By The Elephant In the Room
A cocktail of grace, innovation and passion embodies the approach our Young Artist of the Month has towards her life, studies and work. Ruvimbo Lorraine Makumbe, whose artist name is iR3ign, is an upcoming businesswoman in the Fashion and Music world in London. Along with pursuing her undergraduate studies at the University of Northhampton in the UK, this go-getter is also interning for the Sudanese London-based fashion designer Omar Asim and hopes to take her career in the fashion industry to greater heights.
Only in her twenties she has already achieved a lot including interning at ASOS, a leading fashion powerhouse, as well as recording her own Soul and R’n’B music. Through all these experiences as a young woman trying to make a name for herself she soon came to realize that there was no support system in place, especially for young black women in the UK, to help women navigate the entertainment industry. Although Lorraine enjoyed singing from an early age, she has since put that dream on hold to pursue her fashion interests. Her reasons for taking a step back from the music industry highlights some of the challenges women face in a male-dominated workplace, especially in the entertainment industry. Some of these challenges include inappropriate advances from co-workers in positions of authority and lack of opportunities for advancement.
Lorraine, frustrated by this heavy emphasis on looks over talent in a workplace that offered little chances for growth, Lorraine opted to fully pursue her other interests in design and business. This experience motivated her to work towards establishing her own recording studio where talented young women can record in a safe and encouraging environment. Furthermore, she is a part of the movement iCan in which she hopes to encourage young women to push harder for their dreams and build viable careers by themselves. Today, she is grateful for the support of her aunt and friend who have helped her immensely in being a source of stability. Lorraine hopes that in a similar way she can be a beacon of strength for other young women.
Although she admits she still has a lot to learn, the advice she would give to other young women who are considering going into the entertainment industry is to have patience. She believes that impatience, especially to become famous quickly, leads to reckless behavior in which a young woman is most likely to get exploited. She is currently working on many projects, including setting up her own business. Our readers should watch this space, Lorraine will be doing even bigger things in the coming years!
You can listen to her music on SoundCloud below:
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