Hanifa’s Anifa Mvuemba on the power of pressing pause: ‘It’s okay to stop’

Founder Anifa Mvuemba opens up about postpartum rest, behind-the-scenes fixes, and the anniversary collection marking Hanifa’s return.

In March, Anifa Mveumba did something founders rarely do in the middle of a crisis: She stopped.

Towards the end of 2025, Hanifa customers had flooded social media with frustrations over orders placed during the brand’s “Hanifa Friday” sale in November that didn’t arrive until as late as February. As the thinkpieces piled up, behind the scenes, Mvuemba was just months removed from giving birth to her second child, juggling entrepreneurship and the augmented pressure of being at the center of social media discourse.

So she hit pause, announcing a production pause , stating that Hanifa would fulfill existing orders but hold off on restocks and new launches while she stepped back. Eight months later, the founder and CEO says she feels “rested, clearer, and honestly just excited.” After the brand announced its first collection since the hiatus, Mvuemba is candid about what the break taught her, and what the brand got wrong.

“For me, the pause really meant stopping and taking care of myself first,” Mvuemba shared in an interview with theGrio, reflecting on her hiatus. “I just gave birth to my second child, and I had jumped back into work much sooner than I expected because there was so much happening with the business…At the time, everything felt very loud and urgent, and I felt like I needed to jump in and fix everything immediately.”

For the entrepreneur, that meant taking a break from all things Hanifa and doing what many ambitious people struggle to do: rest. She explains that meant slowing down her day-to-day routine to be present with family and give herself space to process the layers of the discourse. As she noted in the letter she posted in March, “founder-led brands operate under a different kind of scrutiny. And when you’re a Black woman, the margin for grace is thinner. That reality is exhausting.”

“This season taught me that rest is necessary. I love working, and I love what I do, but you need mental clarity to make good decisions. Taking a break didn’t mean I cared any less about the business. It actually allowed me to come back and lead it better,” Mvuemba told theGrio.

However, that did not take away from the founder taking accountability for the brand’s missteps in the process. And as Hanifa prepares to launch its first collection since the hiatus, Mvuemba was honest about the systems being implemented, like an external customer service team, new logistics, and a manufacturing partner, to ensure these delays and communication issues don’t happen again.

“During our pause, we evaluated all parts of the business to put the best practices and team members in place to support this next phase,” she explained. “A big priority for this return was having the product ready to ship and creating a smoother experience from the moment someone shops to the moment their order arrives.”

And to the customers who had bad experiences with Hanifa, Mvuemba understands the frustration. “I understand…especially when someone trusts us with an order for an important moment in their life and we don’t meet that expectation. There were things we could have communicated better, and I can own that. What I hope people understand is that we took the time to really look at where we needed to improve instead of rushing past it,” she added.

The founder was 21 years old when she introduced the Hanifa woman to the world. Since then, like her customers, she has evolved and understands the importance of boundaries, especially as a Black female founder in the age of social media where criticism often comes with a side of cruelty and personal attacks.

“Boundaries have become really important to me,” Mvuemba shared, “[But] I don’t think protecting yourself means avoiding feedback or criticism. For me, it means being grounded enough to know what needs my attention and what doesn’t.”

Returning just in time for its anniversary collection, the Hanifa CEO says that growth is reflected in not only its business operations but also its designs. Through the years, color, shape, and knitwear have become ingrained into Hanifa’s DNA, so much so that it’s become easy to spot a Hanifa piece out in the wild. Ahead of the collection’s November 18 launch, Mvuemba teased the return of her beloved knitwear styles and the introduction of new materials.

“The collection feels more refined and elevated, but still very Hanifa,” she said, revealing how her team went back to the brand’s archives before creating the new collection. “There’s everyday dressing, occasion pieces, evening wear and more separates, so she can really build a wardrobe around the brand…It feels very Hanifa, but also feels fresh.”

Ultimately, Mvuemba describes this next chapter as an entrepreneur in three words: “Stronger, wiser and smarter.”

“I’m still very ambitious and excited about growth, but I’m thinking much more about longevity now,” she said. “That means pacing ourselves, using data, having the right people and systems in place, and understanding that I don’t personally need to carry every part of the business.”

And if she could go back to March, to the noise and the urgency and the pressure to fix everything at once, she knows exactly what she’d say.

“I would probably tell myself that it’s okay to stop.”

Full story sourced from TheGrio. Read the original article for the publisher's complete coverage.