The Kezira Collection

These breezy rayon shirts are handmade by Kaethe and evoke the relaxed street vibe of Diredawa, Ethiopia. The fabrics are available only fleetingly, making each item a limited edition piece. With the unique story, texture, and fabric pattern, the shirts seem to find their person with an undeniable click!

I first started going to the Eastern city of Diredawa about 10 years ago, during some of my initial explorations in Ethiopia. Many things seemed in contrast to the hurry scurry of Addis Ababa. I was immediately struck by the casual nature of the dwellers there, and I marveled at how they walk around in the hot weather, how they spend their afternoons, how they strike up a conversation, the sophisticated thoughtfulness of the people. The people of Diredawa are multi-linguists-- they often speak a combination of 3 or 4 languages--  among them Somali, Oromo, Aderinga, Arabic, Amharic, French, Afar. There are two sides of the city: the calm tree-filled breezy side, and the zoomy jagged triangle streets with short cuts everywhere. The primary mode of transportation in Diredawa is the 3 wheeled motorized taxi, the Bajaj, which has room for 3 in the back and one passenger squished up front.

Due to the heat and tradition, most of the women in Diredawa wear an all purpose garment they call a Diria, which is simply a long rectangular flowing cloth with just a hole for the head and two holes for the arms. They will knot the fabric up on their hip sometimes, to get it out of the way. The cloth is a very soft 100% rayon with a beautiful drape, which holds bright colors well. I was immediately in love with these fabrics and began exploring the fabric markets, inspired by what kind of patterns I could create that I wasn’t seeing there.

Back home in Massachusetts, I got into the details of what a man's shirt should be. During that time, I standardized the sizing, thought a lot about loose fit, unisex draping, box pleats versus side pleats in the back, how I wanted to shape the bottom, what kind of collar, and pocket details, etc.

After a lot of experimentation, I settled on what I think is the perfect pattern for this fabric and for my customers.