BY BETELHEM BEDLU
Tsion Bahru was born and raised in Addis Ababa. She has received her first degree in Business Administration and Information System from Addis Ababa University, School of Commerce.
Right after that, she went directly to England and joined the London School of Commerce. She did her MBA in International Business and International Marketing. After moving back to her home country, Tsion joined the international company, Heineken Breweries.
She served there in the Department of Trade Marketing as Business Intelligence and Perfect Execution Analyst and was able to be promoted Sales Automation Manager.
While she was a full-time employee, her strong desire had pushed her to attend private evening courses at Wossi International Fashion College where she gained her confidence for establishing her own company.
Tsion is the founder and CEO of MISS.T.CAL Apparel Design. She describes herself as an apparel entrepreneur, a fashion designer, a creator of active customer experience, and business woman. She is known for communicating her message through her designs.
The Ethiopian Herald had sat down with Tsion to talk about her experience in the designing career and her accomplishments. Enjoy your reading!
Herald: When did you join the designing industry?
Tsion: MISS.T.CAL apparel design was established in January 2019. Though my interest in designing has always been there since my childhood, I was working in another business for various years.
While I was working in Heineken Company, I used to take different evening courses on fashion design. When I realized that I was able to be on my foot, I started my career in the apparel design industry.
Herald: What does your work represents and where do you get your inspirations from?
Tsion: Most of our works communicates social values such as feminism in a very artistic and aesthetic way. We give special value for women empowerment. Even our company motto is ‘Empowered women, Empower Women’.
We prioritize women empowerment along with beauty and fun through our designs. The fun part is that I usually get my inspiration to do all these from music and music videos.
Herald: What was the major challenge that you faced to get yourself where you are today?
Tsion: Having consistency, establishing my own routine when nobody has to direct me and motivating me was basically the challenges I faced. Because when you work for somebody else, you have 8 to 5 rules, and you already know what you are going to do, but when you run your own company, you have to use your time very wisely. So, it was a great battle with time management, discipline and consistency.
Generally speaking, most designers fail to find fabrics or other materials at the market. Our choices sometimes depend on the market but it does not work like that.
Herald: How do you value the designing scene in Ethiopia? What do you wish people to understand about your works in particular and designing in general?
Tsion: It is on top of my dream and there is so much we can do. I don’t think that people understand the value of design yet as there is a big delusion about fashion and glamour rather than technical design and everything that actually matters.
I don’t think we have valued design at the desired rate. And I think there is so much to do.
Herald: How do you assess the role of government in fostering the design industry?
Tsion: The designing industry is the industry that the government has an eye on. I believe that it is very helpful and it will grow to be more supportive in the future. Nongovernmental organizations are also helping the industry hugely.
Herald: Do you think that you have contributed to the sector through your works?
Tsion: It is almost two years since I have opened my company which I think is an early stage for designing business. I really think that I am just at the start and learning something new. But, I am hundred percent sure that in the future my business will contribute something important.
Though it is not something to brag about, I have tried to contribute my part for my country through producing plenty of facemasks during the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.
As I have a long way to go, I will definitely make my country proud through my works in top international stages.
Herald: What are your best accomplishments so far?
Tsion: With the COVID-19 situation, me having to react fast to the situation and act very brave as an entrepreneur, I think that brought out greatly what I want to be as an entrepreneur.
It is not about fashion design; it was about having the quality of an entrepreneur. Being fast with quality, contributing a product on the market, having people to buy the entire product and enjoy it and making my name when everything looked bad due to the pandemic, I think that was very great of me. I would definitely say that was my biggest accomplishment for now as I will have a bigger contribution in the future.
The Ethiopian Herald December 12/2020
