Its now two years since my move back to Addis. As the saying goes time flies, when you are immersed in challenging and exciting pursuits and having fun!

20 years ago, next year, when we showcased the first African Mosaique event in Paris at the Carrousel Du Louvre, and I began living with African fashion, in all its variety and richness, a deep commitment was born in me. I have gone from producing world class fashion events, promoting African design and designers, to running the first Pan African retail shop in South Africa, to designing my own collection. And now I am living in Ethiopia, setting up a fully integrated fashion design, sourcing and manufacturing center. Doing everything I aspired to do. Drawing on the many dimensions and years of my global experience, learning and experimenting as entrepreneurs do.

I didn’t have the slightest inkling 20 years ago that I would end up starting a design and production center in Ethiopia. As a young model then, my sights were limited to promoting Pan African fashion on the global fashion platforms of New York and Paris and starting up my social entrepreneurship project, The Ethiopian Children’s Fund, (ECF Children’s Fund). That project has matured and today we are educating and providing basic health care and nutrition support to the most vulnerable in Ethiopia (www.ethiopiamchildrensfund.org)

Today African Fashion is thriving, along with the wider socio-economic renaissance underway, and it has never been more exciting.

And so the title of our campaign ADDIS RISING, make perfect sense. A new campaign in my new home, Addis, which is a part of the wider phenomena of transforming Ethiopia.

THANK YOU to the fantastic team, for making this campaign an experience I will cherish. Photographer Michel Temteme, Models: Zemenay Ayalew, Melat Assefa Demissie, Selamawit Getachew and Nardos Tegegne Make-up seyoum ketema and Habesha City Bus.