About Us
Fashion Beyond Borders Institute (FBBI) is Ghana's premier fashion manufacturing and global distribution institute, empowering the next generation of fashion manufacturers, entrepreneurs, and global distribution professionals through world-class education, hands-on production experience, international partnerships, and industry-driven economic development.
At the FBB Institute, we aim to bridge the divide between education and practical experience. Our modern facility in Dzorwulu, Accra offers comprehensive training and in-house manufacturing opportunities that empower our students to learn essential skills, cultivate creativity, and gain industry knowledge on an international level. We focus on fostering sustainable practices, allowing aspiring fashion designers, seamstresses, and entrepreneurs to create and grow their own brands. FBB Institute combines education, manufacturing, international trade, and workforce development under one organization. Join us in shaping a responsible future in mass production and global distribution of apparel.
Students go from Idea → Brand → Product → Business → Launch.
The Team
Lessie Brown
Enrollment Advisor
Tanya Carr
Fashion Design & Production Instructor
Rey Mills
Business Fashion & Entrepreneurship Instructor
Meet Our Founder
Madam Shawnie Grant
Founder & Global Fashion Manufacturing Strategist
Madam Shawnie Grant is an internationally recognized fashion manufacturing strategist, entrepreneur, educator, and author whose career bridges fashion, global manufacturing, entrepreneurship, and international trade. An Indigenous American and native Houstonian, Grant has built a career around one defining vision: connecting creative ideas with the global resources, knowledge, and manufacturing opportunities needed to bring them to life.
Grant is the creator of Fashion Beyond Borders: Exploring The Global Fashion Industry, an educational curriculum designed to introduce students, entrepreneurs, and aspiring fashion professionals to the realities of the global fashion industry. Her curriculum has been taught at NYU Shanghai in Shanghai, China, through the NYUSPS program, in Oujda, Morocco, and at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas. Her hands-on workshops have also been presented in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and Accra, Ghana.
Grant transformed her curriculum into the published book Fashion Beyond Borders: Exploring The Global Fashion Industry, making her knowledge accessible to a global audience. Editions 1 and 2 are distributed across the United States, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, with editions available in English and Mandarin. She is also the author of Threads of Imagination: A Fashion Sketch Pad, published in English and Spanish, and Phoenix Rising: 365 Days of Renewal, Strength, and Purpose, currently available across markets in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States.
With experience spanning more than 35 countries, Grant has immersed herself in international fashion and manufacturing environments, conducting study-abroad research and professional work focused on mass production, apparel manufacturing, sourcing, and global distribution in China, Vietnam, Morocco, and Puerto Rico.Her entrepreneurial career includes founding and leading companies involved in fashion, manufacturing, and international trade. Grant has successfully managed the mass production of school uniforms and apparel manufactured in China and distributed to organizations and universities throughout Texas. She has also led the international sourcing and distribution of personal protective equipment and medical devices, including supplying products manufactured in China and Puerto Rico to the United States federal government.
As an educator, Grant has taught fashion entrepreneurship, global manufacturing, sourcing, and international trade, bringing real-world industry experience into the classroom. Her approach goes beyond teaching students how to create fashion; she teaches them how to understand the business, manufacturing, and global systems required to transform an idea into a viable company.
Grant holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Texas Southern University and pursued graduate studies in the MBA program at the University of Houston, with an academic focus in international business.
Her Vision
Fashion Beyond Borders Institute represents the evolution of Grant's global experience into an institution designed to prepare the next generation of fashion entrepreneurs and industry leaders. Her vision is to create an environment where students don't simply study fashion, they develop brands, understand manufacturing, build businesses, explore international markets, and prepare to launch their ideas into the global marketplace. Through FBB Institute, Grant is creating a bridge between creative vision and commercial opportunity, empowering students to see fashion not only as an art form, but as an industry capable of creating businesses, jobs, international partnerships, and economic impact.