In addition to the handmade styles fashioned in Ethiopia, Lemlem currently works with a manufacturer in Kenya and a factory in Morocco, where its new swimwear line is made. The technique, once part of a thriving industry responsible for the customary attire, Still, respecting the tradition of weaving came with challenges: the handwoven cotton has no stretch, so the garments had to be loose, and the local cotton is mostly undyed, so Kebede had to get creative about how to add colour. “I thought my career was going to end. Of course, when I started, this whole conversation wasn’t even a thing, so we were just focused on social entrepreneurship. “The work I am doing is a sustainable model because it’s about the human element. “When I started working, there could only be one black person on every runway. lemlem is committed to elevating artisanship and expanding production and jobs across Africa. Kebede estimates that when they first began producing with the workshop in Addis Ababa, there were around 50 employees. “So the idea of making something more sustainable by employing people is the most productive: you’re empowering them, giving them independence and teaching them a skill they can use for the rest of their lives. Her mother was a career woman – “She was a woman who had to work” – and her father, who worked for Ethiopian Airlines, placed great importance on the family’s academic endeavours, and his daughter was earnest and studious at school: she loved reading and learnt to speak French and English fluently, alongside her native Amharic. “For me, the word has different meanings,” she says. pathways to jobs. Such limitations, though, came to define the Lemlem aesthetic: breezy cover-ups and separates with colourful woven motifs, which have a resort-like comfort and elegance.
Sign up for our newsletter and receive 10% off your first orderlemlem Foundation, lemlem’s philanthropic arm, is a non-profit organization with the mission “I have no way of approaching these aesthetics, because it’s so different from my world,” says Hardy, adding: “Liya was at the centre of the question. It also informed the way she set up Lemlem: as a grassroots operation. and donations advance this mission.get 10% off your first order and be the first to know about special events, sales and more! I didn’t think you could live life without doing the school thing and so college seemed obvious to me,” she says. Get 30 days’ complimentary access to our Coronavirus Business Update newsletter Lemlem is sold at Barney's, J.Crew, Net-a-Porter.com and numerous boutique shops. Alice Cavanagh meets her in Paris to talk sustainability, swimwear and science fiction She embodied this idea, as a woman, as an entrepreneur.”At a time when the public is increasingly demanding transparency from the industry, Kebede has the advantage of having established, 12 years ago, the right sustainability practices. lemlem is an artisan-driven sustainable fashion label for women, men and kids, founded by supermodel Liya Kebede. Five percent of lemlem’s direct sales, proceeds from special collaborations, “School meant a lot to me.
There’s no posturing, no agenda, no ego.
Lemlem, the artisanal fashion line founded by supermodel Liya Kebede in 2007 is the comprehensive answer to that question. lemlem is an artisan-driven sustainable fashion label for women, men and kids, founded by supermodel Liya Kebede. “That whole thing scares me a bit, to be honest.
In her mid-20s, when most of her generation were nursing hangovers and mourning the end of Destiny’s Child, she signed on as a WHO goodwill ambassador for maternal, newborn and child health. Lemlem Founder Liya Kebede “As part of this collaboration The Woolmark Company is sharing its farm-to-factory sustainability expertise with our design team and our artisans,” says Kebede.
Sales benefit the lemlem Foundation to fund maternal health and women's empowerment programs in Africa. Supermodel Liya Kebede was inspired to launch the brand following a trip to her native Ethiopia where she met a group of traditional weavers who no longer had a market for their craft. Hailing from Ethiopia, Lemlem – which means ‘to flourish and bloom’ in Amharic – empowers artisans. Today, there are more than 250 – and their wages have increased fivefold. Look at Hong Kong… Brexit… Trump – it’s endless. She drains the last drop of coffee, and we gather our things and venture next door into the musty depths of the shop. Alongside her 20-year-strong modelling career and a foray into acting, there is her role as a World Health Organisation (WHO) goodwill ambassador and her lifestyle brand Lemlem (meaning “to bloom” and “flourish” in Amharic), which she launched in 2007 as an effort to reinvigorate artisanal handweaving practices in her birth country, Ethiopia. “It would be the perfect place to hide.” It’s true; in here – her head bowed down to examine the synopses – Kebede could be just any other bookworm escaping into science fiction. Liya Kebede started modelling at 18, became a mother at 22 and a UN ambassador at 27.