Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
Published: Wednesday, January 20th, 2016
New York (TADIAS) — Three years ago, after a lengthy career of more than ten years in the eyewear industry, Ethiopian American Abaynesh Jembere decided to establish her own brand of high-quality, fashionable sunglasses, which she aptly named Jembere.
“I decided it was time for me to follow my dream of becoming an entrepreneur,” Abaynesh tells Tadias. “Luckily I had a lot of experience working with eyewear so I had the relationships and knowledge of what I needed to do.”
The NYC-based business sources its materials from top eyewear suppliers in Italy and Germany and manufactures the eyewear in Asia. “Our beautiful lens cloths are handwoven in Ethiopia,” Abaynesh adds. “It was very important to us to have a piece of our brand made in Ethiopia.”
Image courtesy: Jembere Eyewear
While the company has so far only sold items directly from their online site, their eyewear products have been featured on Essence magazine, and last May Jembere’s founder Abaynesh was featured in The Root’s list of “10 African Artists and Entrepreneurs You Should Know.” In 2016 Jembere plans to include additional retailers as part of their expansion.
Abaynesh, who grew up in Seattle, was born in Sudan and moved to the United States when she was barely 2 years old. “I took my first trip back to Ethiopia when I was 18 years old. I was truly inspired and fell in love with our culture,” she shared. “I knew then that whatever I was going to create was going to bridge fashion and culture — my culture — together. That’s when Jembere, which is the Amharic word for ‘my sunset’ was born.”
Abaynesh Jembere, founder of Jembere Eyewear. (Courtesy photos)
“As a child you couldn’t keep me away from my mother’s heels, red lipstick and eyeliner, which by the way, to this day, the latter two are still my staple items,” Abaynesh admits. As a teenager she was certain that she wanted to become a designer and pursued those dreams by enrolling in the Design & Merchandising program at Drexel University.
“My goal is to create products for the fashionable and culturally aware customer,” Abaynesh tells Tadias. “Eyewear is just the beginning of my catalog of products, and I am excited for 2016 as I work hard on launching some new items.”
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You can learn more about Jembere Eyewear at www.jembereeyewear.com.