About the initiative

Four Ethiopian designers worked with German fashion designer Markus Lupfer on collections for a fashion show – on invitation of the Goethe-Institut in Addis Ababa. Annemarie Ballschmiter accompanied the unusual project.

Here it comes again: the shoe problem. This time manifested in tiny buckles that come undone, making the platform sandals useless at, of all times, the dress rehearsal for the fashion show. Designer Yamerote Mengistu, called Yami, is irritated. She had managed to organize ten identical pairs of them, which is not an easy undertaking in Addis Ababa.

The shoe problem in various forms had wound like a leitmotif through the entire previous week. Two days prior to the show, Osman Mohammed did not even have one pair of shoes for his models, although he is also known for his self-manufactured flip flop-type sandals. He hadn’t the time to finish them. Of the ten outfits he will be showing on Saturday only seven are – to some extent – finished. Actually, he had wanted to borrow shoes from a boutique located caddy-corner to his shop. The owner had agreed until his wife vetoed it. Osman’s budget wouldn’t allow for purchasing the shoes just for the show. Yet, even if the owner had given an okay, it would not have been such a simple matter: most of the models are single pairs and only very few are available in a number of sizes. This circumstance would not exactly contribute to a uniform appearance on the catwalk.

Alemayehu Seife Selassie, the initiator of the fashion project, explains how the shoe business works here in the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. Flight attendants supplement their incomes by importing shoes, but only on a small scale. They can rarely bring in more than two or three pairs of the same model or the customs officials might become suspicious.

Renaissance Fashion is a project by the Goethe-Institut in which four local fashion designers have created collections within ten days in cooperation with London-based German designer Markus Lupfer. It will culminate in a fashion show and a party where two DJs from Addis Ababa and one from Munich are playing.

A fashion show in Ethiopia, a country we inevitably associate with "hunger"? "It’s about time we revised the images in our minds," according to Elke Kaschl-Mohni, director of the Goethe-Institut in Addis Ababa, which is helping organize Renaissance Fashion. Still, is it not somewhat frivolous to organize a fashion project in one of the world’s poorest nations? "Ethiopia has many social classes and the middle class is hugely important for the development of a society."

The idea for Renaissance Fashion came to Alemayehu early in 2009 when he was doing an internship as part of the Goethe-Institut’s Cultural Management advanced training programme at the Munich Muffatwerk, an arts and event centre. Alemayehu was a former editor of the Ethiopian fashion magazine My Fashion, which was discontinued due to quarrels over its title, and today is editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper Sub-Saharan Informer. His original idea was a workshop and fashion show involving apparel made from recycled materials. Together with his mentor, Muffatwerk programme director Dietmar Lupfer, the idea was further developed to reach the final formula of newly presenting traditional Ethiopian designs and materials and focusing on their international wearability and marketability. This is also a kind of renaissance.

Dietmar Lupfer’s job was to find a German designer willing to take on the adventure. The job proved amazingly simple. Markus Lupfer was his first choice and he agreed immediately. "The project sounded so exciting that I didn’t need to think it over very long. The only thing that may have stood in its way was finding the time," reports the Londoner-by-choice whose fashion is successful around the world. The two Lupfers had actually never met, but soon discovered that they are related: their grandfathers were brothers. They didn’t meet until both were in Addis: a German family reunion on Ethiopian soil.

Alemayehu and Osman Mohamed scouted local designers and then made a final selection with the Goethe-Institut: Osman, born in 1982, established his successful label "Ras Africa" in 2002 while still a student at the Addis Ababa Art Institute. The label designs mainly leather and wedding apparel. Over the past four years, Sewasew Hailu, born in 1971, has made a name for herself as a designer of wedding and evening gowns and, along with Osman, is one of the most established of the four. Like him, she makes a living from her fashions. Adila Ismail, a trained statistician born in 1973, turned her hobby into a profession six years ago, producing crocheted accessories and fashions under the label "Adila Crafts." Yamerote Mengistu, 38, spent her youth in the United States and began studying interior design there, returning to Ethiopia five years ago. She only recently founded her label "Rosa abyssinica."

All four are more or less self-taught, as fashion design courses have only become available very recently in Addis Ababa at private schools. Until now, too, all four had not produced any collections, but single articles of clothing. Only Osman and Sewasew work at all and only occasionally with patterns; a handicap that stands in the way of marketability. "The basis for growing a business is reproducibility," says Markus Lupfer. Nonetheless, he can only offer input on this in the ten days available to them. When it comes to a different, more western or European approach to design, it’s simpler to put into action.

Although the project was conceived as a "dialogue," Markus Lupfer very clearly takes up the role of coach and is accepted as such by the group. Markus Lupfer and his assistant Jason Leung, who arrived in the city a few days earlier, sat down with each of the four designers to develop a basic idea for a collection to be presented at the fashion show. The theme for Osman is leather while ruches will be the leitmotif for Sewasew, who makes very feminine apparel. Adila combines crocheted elements with more masculine pieces and Yamerote works in traditional fabrics, Lurex® and muslin, dying and layering them to create a young collection. "When Jason told me I ought to dye the fabrics, I initially balked. The beautiful material! But, I let myself be talked into it and am very glad I did. The effect is amazing. I learned a great deal; also when it comes to handling the fabrics," reports Yamerote, who first googled Markus Lupfer when she learned that she would be working with him.

You need models for a fashion show, but there is no modelling agency to call in Addis Ababa, the city of three million inhabitants, as one would in Berlin, London or New York. There is no dearth of pretty girls, however, so everyone involved in the project spreads the news among their friends that auditions will be held at the Goethe-Institut. Thirty-six young women attend, most of them students, and 16 are selected. There is a minor "culture clash": the Ethiopian designers favour the more shapely girls while Markus Lupfer prefers the slim gazelles. He prevails.

Success in fashion also involves an ability to improvise. When Osman’s plum-blue top proves too tight for even the slimmest model, Markus Lupfer advises him to open the side seam and sew in a strip of jersey. Since jersey is in short supply in Addis, the London designer quickly pulls off his black t-shirt and hands it to his Ethiopian colleague. During the fittings, Osman’s girlfriend waits in the car parked outside, as five people clearly fill the three-by-three metre shop with red walls to bursting.

On Saturday, the first floor of the Moplaco Coffee Warehouse is just as packed for the show. The event is a huge success just the same. Comments by the audience, consisting of 30 percent expats and 70 percent Ethiopians, range from "Great. I’ve never seen anything like it in Addis!" to "Where can I buy this dress?" One could say mission accomplished, and more than ever if financing for the show’s export to Munich (including a temporary shop) works out.

The buckle-less sandals? Yamerote Mengistu gave them to her models as gifts.