Photo Credit: Anita M/Instagram
Anifa Mvuemba has confirmed that Hanifa is pausing production indefinitely as of March 2026.
The designer shared the news exclusively with The Cut in New York, and the statement she wrote alongside it is one of the most candid reflections on Black-owned fashion entrepreneurship in recent memory. “I don’t really feel inspired right now,” she wrote. “I don’t want to rush just to prove resilience. I don’t want to pretend everything is fine just to keep momentum.”
On Instagram, she kept it short but said everything that needed to be said: “Sharing this took a lot. It’s always been bigger than clothes for me. I just need time.”
To understand the weight of this 2026 fashion industry moment, you have to go back to where it all began. Hanifa launched in 2011, built on form-flattering designs, inclusive sizing up to a size 3X, and a relationship with its customers that felt genuinely personal. The brand found its biggest spotlight in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, when Mvuemba sent 3D ghost models of their clothes down a virtual runway and the internet completely lost it. It was the kind of moment that turned a beloved brand into a cultural one. In 2021, Hanifa staged its first physical fashion show at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., casting real women from Mvuemba’s own community. “Even when we didn’t have a lot of support from the industry, our customers and community know we see them, and that makes a huge difference,” she told The Cut at the time.
Photo Credit: Savannah James/Instagram
That relationship between Hanifa and its customers had always been the brand’s greatest strength, which is part of what made the events of recent months so difficult to watch.
Last November, the brand held Hanifa Friday, its annual sale with garments up to 45 percent off. Some items were listed as preorders with longer shipping windows, but production delays from Mvuemba’s manufacturers disrupted the timeline, leaving many customers waiting far longer than expected. Weeks turned into a month, then two. The brand sent updates in December and January, but for many it was not enough — customers had bought pieces for specific occasions that had already passed, and some say they never received any communication from the brand at all. The frustration spilled onto TikTok, Instagram and YouTube fast, and what started as shipping complaints quickly widened into broader criticism about the brand’s fabrics, sizing, and relationship with influencers.
Mvuemba stepped in publicly to apologise, acknowledged the missteps, and confirmed that every order from the Hanifa Friday sale has since been fulfilled. But the criticism kept coming. And the timing of all of it made everything harder — Mvuemba had just given birth in December and cut her maternity leave short to manage the fallout. “There were nights where I was sobbing in one room and then wiping my face to go be the best mom I could be for my children in the next room,” she wrote. “I just had a baby. I didn’t fully process any of it because I went straight from postpartum into crisis management.”
Photo Credit: Anifa M/Instagram
In her statement to The Cut, she also spoke directly about what it means to face this level of public scrutiny as a Black woman. “I also believe you can hold someone accountable without being cruel. Somewhere along the way, it stopped being about the problem and got personal. We’re a brand, but we’re also people.” She continued: “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.”
Her core community showed up for her throughout — “You can never make me hate Hanifa!” and “this was such a thoughtful and moving response to everything happening online” — but Mvuemba had already made her decision. “The years I’ve poured into building this. The time away from friends and family. The moments with my children I won’t get back. Is it all worth it? Was it? I don’t have a perfect answer. I’m still sitting with the question,” she wrote.
She was also clear that this is not the end. “There’s also so much gratitude in knowing we’re still here. What we just navigated could have ended things. It didn’t. And that means something. Right now, I’m reflecting. I’m protecting what matters to me in this season. And I’m allowing myself to be human in the process. I don’t know exactly what the future of Hanifa looks like at this very moment. And for the first time in 14 years, I’m okay with saying that out loud.”
