While many spent lockdown elbow deep in banana bread, Sabrina and Idris Elba had other ideas, and conjured up an idea for a revolutionary new business. The world of wellbeing (a market that’s expected to be valued at $430.52 billion by 2028) had piqued the pair’s interest, and they got talking about what they could create off the back of it—something that would truly make a difference.
“It began during a conversation Idris and I had at a time in which we felt disconnected from our community,” Sabrina tells me over Zoom. “It opened up the idea of wellbeing and self-care that we hadn’t really thought of before—looking at wellness from the outside in, in terms of your community and who’s around you. That’s when it clicked.”
The result is S’Able Labs, a multifaceted wellbeing brand that will ultimately span events and partnerships in addition to—as Vogue can exclusively reveal today—genderless skin-care products. “Sable is actually ‘Elbas’ backwards,” Sabrina explains, “Idris is sweet—he thinks of all these things.” The couple’s aim is to shake up the wellness industry, and to make what has in the past been a predominantly white, cisgendered space more available to people of all ethnicities, genders and backgrounds.
“We realized quickly that there was no one doing it in the wellness space that looked like, spoke like or felt like us—there was no representation for people of color who wanted to be into wellness and fit in,” she says. “Plus everything was gender-focused—I’d have conversations with my husband on products he didn’t think he could use [due to them being aimed at women], but could.”
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Their genderless skin care range, which will “be affordable but luxury, and address concerns, from hyperpigmentation to inflammation, that so many people face,” is on its way this summer. The Elbas already host a podcast on Audible, named Coupledom, through which they speak to other couples who inspire them. “We believe in the power of partnerships—these conversations are where we learn and educate ourselves, and through that we can bring people along on the journey and show that there’s so much more to this world than just looking inside ourselves,” Sabrina says.
One of the brand’s key beliefs is that people who feel good, do good. “When you are happier, doing good just comes naturally,” says Sabrina. “That’s why self-care is such an important thing in partnerships and relationships—when you’re feeling really good about yourself, you’re able to share that with other people and it’s infectious. I feel like we’ve forgotten about that because we’ve been so isolated. We want to remind people to share that good energy.”
