Austin-Based Lifestyle Brand Fanm Djanm Celebrates the Power and Beauty of the Headwrap

For the past six years, Fanm Djanm, a headwrap brand rooted in Haitian culture, has operated a storefront on South Lamar — but its mission of belonging has always extended far beyond a single space. In Creole, the brand’s name translates to “strong woman.” For Haitian founder Paola Mathé, who launched the brand in 2014 from her New York apartment, it serves both as a tribute to the generations of culture it reflects and a guiding vision for how she hopes women will navigate the world while wearing one. In late March, the South Austin storefront closed, not as an ending, but as a shift. The brand continues online, with its next chapter already taking shape.

The brand was born from a question Mathé was asked over and over: “Where did you get your headwrap?” Mathé arrived in New York at 21 with what she describes as “a thirst for everything.” She walked everywhere — from Washington Heights through Harlem, past the African markets and fabric shops lining 125th Street, where she would buy the fabric for her headwraps. It quickly became her signature look.

How Fanm Djanm began

One night in 2013, a stranger stopped her on the street to ask again. Mathé’s response to, “just go buy some fabric,” was met with a look she couldn’t shake. “I got home that night, and I remember thinking, ‘Do people just not know how to wrap?’” Mathé says, recalling her surprise. “I googled ‘headwraps for Black women’ and found almost nothing. And then I finally asked myself, ‘Should I start a headwrap company?’”

Just one year later Fanm Djanm was born, and the impact has been hard to overstate. Women wrote to Mathé from across the country, and eventually the world, about how wearing her headwraps made them feel. A lawyer wrote to her that she wore a Fanm Djanm wrap to court and won the case. Another woman gave birth in one, writing to Mathé, “It made me feel so strong.” Mathé’s goal to empower women to be unapologetically bold, powerful and self assured through Fanm Djanm was unfolding with striking momentum.

After relocating to Austin, Mathé spotted a ‘for lease’ sign on the corner of Oltorf Street and South Lamar Boulevard, just blocks from her home. She secured the space in 2020, recognizing the opportunity to create a storefront that would celebrate textured hair, culture and community in Austin. She opened by appointment first, then fully to the public in 2022, and what followed were four years of book clubs, Haitian Flag Day celebrations, live Haitian drumming and headwrap workshops where her young daughter often stood beside her and helped.

The brand’s evolution

Fanm Djanm headwraps come in a wide array of vibrant, luminous colors, patterns and textures, with silk wraps that transition seamlessly from day to evening and cotton styles that offer ease and durability. The brand also has designs for beginners, women navigating hair loss and women who want to be bold with their popular volumizer — one of Mathé’s most loved innovations that creates height without complexity. In addition to headwraps, Fanm Djanm also features a “Ti Mache,” with boutique jewelry, handbags and books. Everything is designed with their zero-waste policy and sustainability in mind. “When I think about creating a sustainable product, I want it to be easy to care for and easy to wear, but I also want to select the best quality fabric so (customers) get the most wear possible,” says Mathé.

The decision to close the storefront, Mathé made clear, was hers, shaped by both personal and creative shifts. The online shop remains open, with plans for future pop-ups and collaborations already in motion. For Mathé, the shift creates space to expand both the brand and her own creative practice. She photographs much of the brand’s content herself and is continuing to explore personal projects, including writing. “Now I can say I ran and operated a store in Austin, Texas, right in the middle of one of the most iconic streets in South Austin,” she says. “We’ve gotten the headwrap work down. But thinking about where Fanm Djanm goes from here, we need more. It’s not just headwraps. I need the space to sit and make the right moves.”

Whatever form the brand takes on next, she hopes the feeling her customers embody while wearing a Fanm Djanm headwrap remains the same. “Whether it’s a headwrap, a crown or a bucket hat, I want her to feel like her boldest self,” she says. “To walk in like she owns it, like she has everything she needs in that moment.”

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