Ethiopian supermodel and and World Health Organisation Goodwill Ambassador Liya Kebede graces the pages of Vogue this month wearing her ethical fashion label the Lemlem collection--styled with a pair of Olsen Haus vegan shoes, to boot--reports Ecorazzi. Lemlem launched in 2007 out of Liya's desire to create a Western market for the traditional weavers of Ethiopia and, according to her website, "to preserve the art of weaving." Initially the line was comprised of children's apparel but it has since expanded to include women's clothing and accessories; summer dresses, tunics, scarves, wraps, sarongs, and more. Click through for photos of the collection, the weaving process and a video interview with Liya Kebede.
The Hand Made Process The collection is produced on a small scale using traditional handwoven fabrics that are made with 60% cotton and 40% rayon (Lyocell, Tencel™, or Modal™ are more sustainable alternatives to rayon). View the hand made process in a series of photos, below.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS Samuelsson was adopted at the age of three He cooked for President Barack Obama's first White House state dinner He has won three James Beard Awards
Every week CNN's African Voices highlights Africa's most engaging personalities, exploring the lives and passions of people who rarely open themselves up to the camera. This week the show profiles celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson.
New York (CNN) -- Celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson is a gastronomic tour de force.
The Ethiopian-born chef has won three coveted James Beard Awards, an accolade described as "like winning the Olympic gold medal for chefs," and has been celebrated as one of "The Great Chefs of America" by the Culinary Institute of America.
With three restaurants and cookbooks to his name, Samuelsson, 39, is firmly established in the world of haute cuisine, so it was no surprise that he was chosen to cook for President Barack Obama's first White House state dinner.
The dinner featured a seasonal menu reflecting American and Indian flavors in honor of the visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Samuelsson worked with first lady Michelle Obama to create a menu that included potato and eggplant salad, roasted potato dumplings with tomato chutney, chickpeas and okra, green curry prawns and caramelized salsify with smoked collard greens.
It's been a whirlwind rise to the top for the chef who says he developed an interest in cooking at just six years old.
But life has not always been easy for him or his family. Born Kassahun Tsegie in a small village north of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Samuelsson was three years old when he, his older sister and mother contracted tuberculosis during an epidemic in Ethiopia. Admitted to hospital, Samuelsson and his sister Linda survived, but his mother was killed by the disease. After their mother's death, a nurse took pity on the young siblings and found an adoption agency to register them, Samuelsson told CNN.
Blog: Meeting Marcus Samuelsson
Months later, Swedish couple Anne Marie and Lennart Samuelsson adopted the children and they left Ethiopia for a life in Europe, which at times proved radically different for them.
Looking back on his upbringing, Samuelsson said: "My mother was white, my father was white, we were mixed kids, mixed family. It was the norm, you know. Not until maybe you're in your teens do you really start reflecting on that maybe that's not the norm."
It was only later in life when his sister started to dig into the family history that Samuelsson discovered his biological father in Ethiopia was still alive.
Samuelsson told CNN: "We found him and my step brothers and sisters. This is one of my biggest gifts to have met my birth father and my sisters and brothers and I feel extremely connected to them My father knew we were adopted. He knew that we were in Sweden but he just didn't know where," he added.
It was in his adoptive home that Samuelsson's love of cooking was shaped and developed by his grandmother. He would spend hours in the kitchen with her and by the age of 16 had decided to become a world-class chef.
He attended the Culinary Institute in Gothenburg, and then worked in Switzerland, Austria and France before moving to the United States in 1991 where he was employed as an apprentice at acclaimed Scandinavian restaurant "Aquavit" in New York.
This was to be his launch pad to culinary fame. After four years at "Aquavit," at the age of just 24, Samuelsson was promoted to Executive Chef and his career skyrocketed.
Fifteen years on, Samuelsson has created his own brand, with three restaurants and a collection of cooking books and classes to his name. It's been hard work but Samuelsson credits his success to his origins.
He told CNN: "I always feel like the biggest luxury I have is that I am connected to poverty. I come from a clay house in the country in Addis. No water, no electricity, no nothing ... I think it is my responsibility to represent poverty. Talk about it and also show there's lots of happy togetherness, family and love."
A FRIEND who lived in Addis Ababa for many years once told that what she missed most after leaving the Ethiopian capital – aside from her host's kitfo, a traditional beef dish, and a neighbour's honey mead- were afternoons spent listening to a local radio station.
Tuned into by taxi drivers, shopkeepers, bureaucrats and bank clerks alike, its eclectic spill of styles, from cha-cha and mambo to Puerto Rican bugalu, Coptic church hymns, Mozart and folk song, was, she later discovered, produced by a certain Mulatu Astatke.
Not simply a spirited programmer, he was one of Ethiopia's most revered composers, a man who, not unlike Nigeria's Fela Kuti, fled political unrest to study music in Britain and the US. When the two returned home in the 1960s, they fused the myriad influences they had encountered on their travels to create signature styles: Kuti crafted Afrobeat, Astatke fathered Ethiojazz.
Yet while Kuti pursued a life of legendary hedonism – once marrying 27 wives in a single ceremony – and fuelled his music with searing political commentary, Astatke embraced a different brand of patriotism. He taught music at Addis Ababa University, arranged music for Pan-African Elvis Tlahoun Gessesse and educated a broader public through his radio show.
"In Ethiopia, everyone leaves the country to study, so when you do, it's your responsibility to come back and teach what you have learnt, tell what your experience has been," he says.
The 67-year-old will perform his dreamlike, elsewhere melodies in Australia for the first time this weekend as part of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. It's a brief visit for a man with a hectic schedule. "Last week I was in Paris and Athens, then Addis and now to Australia. I am too busy, I think, but this is the way."
While Astatke's collaborations have been many, including Duke Ellington in the 1970s, the meeting that initiated his most recent wave of acclaim involved filmmaker Jim Jarmush. They crossed paths in 2004 at the Winter Garden in New York. Astatke was performing a sold-out show. Astatke recalls: "He came to the dressing room afterwards and said: 'OK, it's taken me six years to look for the music for my next film but now I have been listening to your music and I love it. Can I use it?'."
Broken Flowers, which starred Bill Murray, premiered at Cannes in 2005, winning the Grand Prize of the Jury. Astatke has blossomed ever since, touring the US and Europe in 2008, including Glastonbury. "Wow, it was a dream, I tell you. Just to see thousands and thousands of people in one place, in tents, in the mud. I was so amazed how they love music, how they sacrifice themselves to hear it. What a beautiful experience."
British label Strut subsequently released three Astatke albums in quick succession: a retrospective of his work titled New York – Addis – London: The Story of Ethiojazz (1965-1975), a collaboration with UK collective the Heliocentrics, Inspiration Information, and an album of new songs, Steps Ahead. The opening track of Steps is a tribute to his time at Harvard University, where he spent two years on a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship. Last year he ventured to Massachusetts as part of an Abramowitz artist-in-residence scholarship at MIT.
As to his next steps, even Astatke concedes they will be hasty. In June, he will open his own jazz institute in Addis Ababa. "It will be the best place to learn for students from across east Africa: Kenya and Tanzania. Then I must finish the opera I am writing too. And then I go back to London to play the Barbican. Fast steps, oh yes, exactly!"
Mulatu Astatke plays The Forum tomorrow and Monday.
