Bethel Degefu

Bethel Defegu’s BA thesis collection explores the intersection of Ethiopian national dress and girl skate culture, where tradition is carried into everyday movement. Rooted in Bethel’s experience as an Ethiopian woman growing up in Finland, the work reflects a sense of existing between cultures and a desire to make that in-between space visible. Visual research into Ethiopian girl skaters revealed a powerful tension between ornament and action, and between fragility and durability. The collection asks how cultural garments can remain alive when worn, moved in, and transformed. Through material exploration, the garments become sites of movement, wear, and time. Shibori pleating, weaving, and boro-inspired patchwork become methods for translating motion into textile form. Fabrics are not treated as static surfaces but as evolving structures that respond to the body, folding, stretching, and accumulating traces of use. Repetition, slowness, and handwork are central to the process, allowing materials to develop depth and unpredictability. "The collection is inspired by the image of a young girl skating through the streets of Addis Ababa, her dress caught between ceremony and motion. Making this collection became a way of letting go of control, giving space for intuition and a dialogue with the material; an ongoing exploration that keeps me constantly on my toes." Wear and patina are not outcomes but starting points. Inspired by the marks left through repeated movement, surfaces are constructed to suggest histories of use; fading, fraying, and repair are embedded into the fabric itself. Denim, embroidery, and layered textiles carry both weight and lightness, reflecting the duality of protection and exposure. "I’m drawn to crafts made through slow, meticulous processes. What some may find numbing, I see as a space for focus and intention." The collection exists between past and present, between stillness and motion. It is not an attempt to preserve tradition, but to move with it.