Kunjina Tesfaye was fortunate enough to discover her passion at a young age. She and her sister would entertain the family with fashion shows on weekends, often wearing her mother’s oversized clothes and styling them so they would fit. She started sketching female figures at the age of 14 and designing clothes that looked more like wearable art pieces. Kunjina is a fashion designer based in Addis Ababa Ethiopia and owns her fashion brand KUNJINA that she founded in 2017, located now at Century mall. She makes unisex and women’s ready to wear garments and adds uniquely crafted details on her garments such as hand painting, fabric manipulations and embroidery to narrate stories from her inspiration.
After finishing high school, she still nurtured her desire for fashion and got a sewing machine from her aunt. She joined Wossi International Fashion Institute while she was a fourth year student in university and took a short course in fashion design. Kunjina fully focused on her passion right after she got her BA. She has participated in many local fashion events and has gained a wide range of local and international media.
Kunjina believes what she presents to the world regarding her art should always upgrade and be a better version of her last project. She wants her work to inspire and impact people’s lives which pushes her to keep going.
She recently launched her new conceptual collection named UDET. UDET is a geez word meaning cycle and is inspired from Kunjina’s personal experience; this collection revolves around topics like fear, productivity guilt and growth. It shows the process of self-doubt, transformation and self-actualization using the metamorphosis cycle of a butterfly as a metaphor.
We share with you some photos from her recently debuted UDETcollection.
Kunjina Tesfaye: Facebook, Instagram, email -Kunjinatesfaye@gmail.com
