27-yr-old Engineer launches fashion brand Finor X
Patrick Beckley, founder, Finor X
Sierra Leonean-American environmental engineer, Patrick Beckley has launched an eco-friendly fashion brand that embraces local producers, textiles, and Sierra Leone. Beckley launched Finor X to promote culture, community, and sustainability in fashion. All products sold and made by the US-based brand are sourced, designed, or manufactured in the country of his birth.
Beckley who was born in Freetown left Sierra leone in 1995 at the age of 3. He is the youngest in a family of four children. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Howard University, where he was a scholar athlete. He is the son of parents from Mandingo, Krio, Yoruba, and Temne heritage. Although the Beckley family emigrated to the US, their African customs have always been central to family life in the DC Metro Area.
“Growing up the best-dressed people were not on TV or in the stores, they were in my family,” said Beckley. He is the younger brother of Miss Sierra Leone World 2011, Swadu Natasha Beckley.
“Going to functions wearing matching asoebi, I was able to see my family express themselves through fashion. I learned fashion was a way to say who you are and where you’re from before saying a word.”
Long before Black Panther made African fashion and culture, desirable Beckley say he was always for and about the culture. Traveling to Sierra Leone on holidays he would shop in the local markets, and work with tailors to design his own clothes. It was the best possible kind of hands-on experience of the fashion production lifecycle. He wondered how he could scale the process into an international brand to showcase both the beauty, skills, and culture on the continent.
“I saw the parallels of the engineering process in finding ways to create a sustainable and ethical brand in a space where the majority of producers are not eco-friendly,” said Beckley
Patrick and his siblings 
Patrick Beckley, founder, Finor X 
Patrick Beckley, Howard University, BS Chemical Engineering, Class of 2014 
“Fashion production and retail are hard enough but adding consciousness environmentally to the process made for even more constraints. We are transparent and proud of our model. This is why we let our customers follow the journey to understand the process and story behind our products. Transparency is key.”
Finor X promotes environmental responsibility, creates African inspired art, fashion, and jewelry to build unity from the continent to the diaspora. Finor, which means beautiful in Temne, is an affirmation of the brand’s values. Beckley says he wants to use Finor X to create a global black movement that is both for the culture and the environment.
“Whether it is African textiles like Kontri Kloth, Bogolanfini, or Kente all tell a story of memory and connection to our African source,” says Beckley.
“Art has a lot to do with healing. Controlling our narrative is important because having a positive image of yourself has positive physiological effects on the human mind.” Finor X Monarchs the brand’s latest campaign highlights the butterfly effect, environmentalism, and spiritual connection.
Finor X will always be about sustainability and community. And Beckley says Sierra Leone will always be central to its story for what the country symbolizes within the global black narrative.
“Sierra Leone’s history is an example of an African country made up of Diasporans and Continental Africans under one flag,” said Beckley.
“Freetown our capital city was founded by former slaves, freed blacks, Maroons and indigenous Africans.
For the full Finor X experience visit them online.
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