Mahlet Afework is an Ethiopian fashion designer and entrepreneur. [1] [2]
Afework was supposed to study nursing for two years. But in the middle of her studies, she quit to study Fashion. [3]
zAfework began her career at age 16 as a model and musician. While in grade 9, she took interest in rap music and released a single titled Shalom Africa. Aside getting a deal from Yosef Gebre Jossy, a famous recording artiste in Addis Ababa, to record an album, she was also given the opportunity to design clothes for his music video, Jossy In Z House. [3] Through Google and youtube videos, she learned Fashion. In 2011, she founded Mafi Mafi, an Ethiopian fashion label. She uses hand-woven fabrics made by women from Ethiopia's rural areas to create clothing and accessories. [1] [4] She has collaborated with cult UK designer Markus Lupfer and has exhibited at London college of fashion, European Fashion Day in Addis and Africa Fashion Week New York. [2] [5]
In 2014, she gave a TED Talk about Ancient tradition and modern fashion. [6]
She is married. [7]
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Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east and northeast, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west, and Sudan to the northwest. Ethiopia has a total area of 1,100,000 square kilometres (420,000 sq mi). It is home to 117 million inhabitants and is the 12th-most populous country in the world and the 2nd-most populous in Africa after Nigeria. The national capital and largest city, Addis Ababa, lies several kilometres west of the East African Rift that splits the country into the African and Somali tectonic plates.
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