Roads, whether straight or twisted, are metaphors for life; they can take you away from a place but they can also bring you back. Designer Hana Getachew knows this well. She deliberately named her business Bolé Road Textiles after the main artery in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: the road that took her family out of Ethiopia when she was 3 years old—and the road that brought her back.
After an 11-year career as an architect in New York, Ms. Getachew created her business in 2015, collaborating with small Ethiopian artisan collectives and studios to produce hand-woven Ethiopian cotton textiles on traditional two-harness looms. Ms. Getachew designs her annual collections from her studio in New York and sends them to her partners in Ethiopia in a business model that is “not too complicated,” she said. “I just send designs by email and try to plan a visit right after, and manage production that way!” Her method allows for creative interpretation in the production process and for fair wages and a good lifestyle for the Ethiopian artisans.
Taking Her First Steps
When Ms. Getachew was 3 years old, her family left Ethiopia and went first to Montreal, Canada, for five years before settling in New York. Ms. Getachew has very few memories of Ethiopia or Ethiopian culture from this time of her life.“Back then, in the ‘80s, people didn’t fly back and forth as often as they do today,” she explained. During their time in Montreal, in particular, her family did not have access to Ethiopian foods or communities. “You need a community in order to be able to create and build the traditions,” Ms. Getachew said.
Once in New York, the family joined a local Ethiopian church and developed a community of Ethiopian friends. As she grew up, Ethiopian cultural traditions started coming back into her family’s lives and rituals. However, despite having Ethiopian friends, speaking Amharic at home, and following holiday traditions, it was largely as a tourist that she experienced her first trip back.
When she was 21, Ms. Getachew decided it was time. She visited Ethiopia for a few months. “It was incredible; I remember being so overwhelmed. I tried to take it all in,” she said. Surrounded by family, she was amazed to experience Ethiopian culture in person. “It was a unique experience,” she said. “I knew I would keep coming back.”
Related Stories
Right away, Ms. Getachew started thinking of how she could eventually work in Ethiopia. “I didn’t know exactly whether it would be as a volunteer or as a career.” She experimented with various ideas, but it wasn’t until a friend launched a textile business that she had her own ‘aha’ moment. The idea took shape, and in 2015 she launched Bolé Road Textiles.
Finding Her Home
“It was more simple than one might think to get started,” Ms. Getachew said. “I was introduced to some of my artisan partners through family.” There aren’t many artisans in Ethiopia producing for export, so by asking around and getting a few names, Ms. Getachew built relationships with the producers she now works with.Traditionally, in Ethiopia, men are the weavers. The techniques are passed from father to son, and some regions specialize in weaving. A lot of the studios Ms. Getachew works with are run by women who hire the available artisans. Most of the studios are fair trade certified, and the smaller ones that are not receive the same wages as the certified studios.
“It’s important to have that worked into the pricing and the profits,” she said. “I used to worry about the pricing, but then I realized that the point of this is to create fair, good livelihoods for the people I work with, and this is what it costs to do that.”
Traditional Ethiopian textiles are produced on two-harness looms using a pointed stick to pick up and place yarns at the front of the loom and other sticks as placeholders at the back. “Almost like a cross between weaving and embroidery; it’s so mind-boggling to see,” Ms. Getachew said. These looms are more challenging and labor-intensive than western four-harness looms with treadles, and the more complicated the design, the trickier they are to use.
“I remember I had this one diamond-shaped pattern and that took 27 place-holder sticks,” Ms. Getachew said. “It was so involved. It was such an education for me; seeing the process in person is quite humbling.”
Once, she created a design and was told it couldn’t be woven but would have to be hand-embroidered due to its complexity. “As the years have gone on I have a better understanding of how my designs are going to look,” she said. “At the beginning, when I designed something, the outcome would often surprise me!” But the collaborative nature of the production process is exciting: “I really love that, when a design comes out better than I anticipated because of how it’s interpreted and executed,” she said.
A designer by profession, Ms. Getachew nonetheless needed to learn more about the process of weaving and traditional Ethiopian looms. “Shortly after I submitted my first round of designs, I thought maybe I should learn a little bit about weaving,” she said. She took a course on weaving at the Textile Art Center in Brooklyn, but she learned on a four-harness loom with treadles, which is easier to use than the Ethiopian looms. Still, she learned enough to start having a better idea of how her designs would turn out.
Ms. Getachew’s designs are inspired by the landscape of Ethiopia and the colors and patterns that she sees in the markets. Designing is her favorite part of the process: “I’ll have an inspiration, and then I’ll make mood boards; I’ll pull a bunch of images, and that starts the process. Then I’ll start putting patterns together on the computer,” she explained. “I put a lot more down on paper than we would actually produce. Within a week, I’ll be done designing a collection. The rest is editing.”
A product can take up to a week to finish. It takes various steps: The yarn is dyed and hung up to dry, then the yarn needs to be rolled and the loom needs to be dressed. Then comes the weaving, which can take a few days. After that, the product is sewn, washed and dried, and then ironed. Between the spinners, dyers, weavers, washers, and sewers, at least 30 hands are involved in every product.
Ms. Getachew loves the sensory experience of hand-spun textiles—the way they smell and feel. She believes Ethiopian fabrics are unique because the cotton seems softer: “When it’s spun by hand, the fibers soften more,” she said. Also, because the cotton has not been treated, “it has a natural look and smell.” She is personally most drawn to the vibrancy of the bright colors in her collections, especially pink and orange. “I love the bath pieces,” she said, “because I interact with them on a daily basis, the bath mats and towels. They have a personal significance.”
“My love for Ethiopia is centered around my relationships: my family, my business partners,” Ms. Getachew said. This love has given her purpose, joy, and a reason to keep coming back.
