Actor Idris Elba and his model, businesswoman and activist wife, Sabrina Elba née Dhowre, have been the poster duo for couple goals since their epic nuptials in 2019. They have not only become a powerful philanthropic force to be reckoned with, but have served as a great example of Black excellence in the entertainment space, using their platform for real genuine and non-performative change.
GLAMOUR caught up with Sabrina over Zoom as she took time out of her busy schedule (she is currently in Africa doing philanthropic work with IFAD — the International Fund of Agricultural Development and the UN) to talk through all the projects she and Idris have in the works including their charity collaboration with Christian Louboutin, their podcast Coupledom, and the work they are doing with S’able Labs which is a community and platform they’ve built to inspire epic duos including, but not limited to; family, business, friendship, and romance. As well as exclusively revealing that the pair have an ‘in-the-works’ gender neutral, ethically sourced and cruelty free skincare line coming out soon.
But first, we discuss the impact of the past year, both in terms of the global pandemic — Idris and Sabrina both suffered Covid-19 early in March 2020 and in terms of the global resurgence of Black Lives Matter following George Floyd’s murder a year ago.
Sabrina tells us that because they were some of the first people to contract it and it was so unfamiliar, at the time it felt, she says, “like a death sentence”. Thankfully the both made a swift recovery and she credits her husband’s support.
“I think Idris was really like my rock through this last year.” Not long into our conversation, the topic turns to the other pandemic that the world has been fighting: racism. Both Sabrina and Idris were deeply affected and triggered by the devastation that George Floyd’s murder bought to the forefront.
“At the time of George Floyd’s murder, so many other people were just so disgusted and appalled by what we saw and just wanted to have some open and free conversations with friends. We had an Instagram live conversation in June 2020 with one of the founders of the BLM organization, Opal Tometi, who is such a smart and bright young woman.”
That conversation sparked one of the biggest fashion collaborations of the year: the Elbas partnership with Christian Louboutin, Walk A Mile In My Shoes, in which the couple helped create a collection where 100% of profits will go to charities to fight racism and social injustice across the world.
“We didn’t know that Christian, who’s a good friend of ours, was actually listening in on that [Instagram] live. He called us after and he told us what he thought. He’s a very empathetic person, the next day he called us back and said couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation and he wanted to do something more.” says Sabrina and then after more discussions, The Christian Louboutin ‘Walk A Mile In My Shoes’ line was born.
The collection is launching tomorrow [16th June], where one hundred percent of the proceeds made from it will go directly to five non-profit organisations that support the victims of police brutality and racial injustice in the United States, small farmers and their children in Somalia, disconnected underserved youth in England and orphaned children and young girls in Sierra Leone.
The collaboration’s name originates from a visit Idris paid to the Martin Luther King Jr memorial in Los Angeles. The slogan itself was inspired by an engraving in an exhibition Idris had seen from Martin Luther king, Jr. “We really sat and brainstormed about what we wanted this collection to speak to. The two biggest things we wanted it to speak to were one empathy, which is where ‘Walk a mile in my shoes’ came in. It’s about looking at your neighbour or the person next to you, and what their struggles are.”
Both Idris and Sabrina were extremely involved in the entire creative process (mostly over Zoom) and helped source other collaborators including designers, photographers and copywriters who might not normally have such opportunities.
The collection is incredibly important to the Elbas, as Sabrina tells us that following the global uprising against racial injustice, silence is no longer an option. “We’ve seen time and time again that silence can be synonymous with racism and inaction is speaking to that as well.” she tells us.
The five organisations Sabrina and Idris chose, spoke personally to them but they also wanted to have a global representation where they would be able to support the next generation of leaders. Sabrina tells us: “We chose organisations that generally support underprivileged youth. One of the organizations called Immediate Theatre based out of Idris’ home borough of Hackney. When Idris was growing up, there was no such thing, he had to go to acting classes, just through his school so he really wanted to support that.”
She then adds: “My mom is from a small town in Somalia, where there’s now a school that provides free education to rural children, so we went with that. Harry Belafonte is an amazing organization that supports young people affected by systemic injustices. We’re talking about prison reform etc. So it helps them financially with cases and bail etc…”
But equally the partnership with such a talented designer, was for Sabrina “a dream come true”, she says. “You feel so powerful and sexy when you put on a pair of Louboutins. Christian has done a really great job in doing a line that makes men feel that same way as well, which is quite rare. So for us, it was a dream come true to be able to have a collaboration, before adding, “I mean, who doesn’t dream of collaborating with Christian Louboutin to make shoes.”
But it’s not all been shoe design, as we turn to talk of what the couples beauty regime is, Sabrina lets slip that they are both testing and working on a gender neutral, ethically sourced and cruelty free skincare line (we can’t wait.) “Well we’ve been testing our own skincare for the past like six months,” she reveals. “I can’t really talk too much about it because it’s going to be launched soon and we’re working really hard on it. We’re trying to create products that are ethically sourced and have traceability and stand up to what the conversation around sustainability really is.”
Is there no end to this power couple’s power? And on that subject, we also discuss the pair’s new audible podcast Coupledom, a podcast that focuses on partnerships, be they romantic, business, friendship or otherwise. She tells me that they’ve been talking about launching a podcast for some years now and it is an offshoot of a project that they started called S’able Labs.
Sable being Elbas written backwards. “When we started dating, we started talking about, what makes relationships work? What makes our relationship work?” she says. “Idris has said [in the past] he’d never get married again. And people thought, well, what’s so interesting about our relationship that now he’s changed that? We found ourselves communicating with friends and people and outlets about, about partnership and why we think partnerships work and why partnerships are important.” On the podcast, you will find some very special guests like Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend and Ben & Jerry from Ben & Jerry’s amongst others.
As our conversation winds up, Sabrina unapologetically answers a question on what criticism she’s faced over the years and how she’s dealt with it. “I heard a bit of criticism in the sense of ‘you’re doing too much. You don’t need to speak out. Who are you to speak out? You’re just somebody’s wife,’ she confesses.
“I realise now by not doing that I’ve been able to affect some positive change, hopefully, and do our part. I did use my platform because I think the most important thing in this fight against misogyny is as a woman, don’t be afraid to use your voice and to stand up and that you have to take hold of your own identity.”
For more from Glamour UK Beauty & Features Assistant Shei Mamona, follow her on Instagram @sheimamona
