Aida Tadesse, 38 years old and founder of Aidesho's Design, has loved drawing pictures and painting since her childhood. She sketches, draws and paints creative designs on every possible surface, constantly improving her talent.

However, a decade ago she officially started to demonstrate her creativity. She went to Next Fashion Design College and graduated with great distinction. With the skills she acquired from school, she participated in fashion shows and organised many of her own.

To take her career to the next level, she joined Addis Abeba University School of Commerce in 2001 for two years to study office management and secretarial science.

Aida continued to practice. She kept on watching online videos and reading books and articles about fashion design and modelling. She also went to New Delhi, India, in 2013, winning a scholarship to study entrepreneurship for small business development.

She became interested in African patterns that represent the culture and art of countries across the continent and went to Uganda for fashion design training. She took a number of short courses online. Six years ago she took the ultimate step and founded her own company, Aidesho’s Design.

Her company, which uses hand-woven cotton, makes clothes with African designs, buying 25pc of the inputs from abroad.

“I always wanted to make African traditional clothing in casual and modern styles,” said Aida.

Aidesho makes textiles and fashionable shoes with African print accessories for weddings, parties and everyday streetwear. Aida’s customers are mainly members of the diaspora, diplomats based in Addis Abeba, young people and artists. The company operates with five employees and sells 30 items of clothing a month.

Betelhem Gizachew, 24, is one of the many young people who is passionate about African patterns. She tends to buy African prints since she likes clothes that are bright and colourful.

"I used to be challenged to find clothes that fit my preference and size," she said.

Nine months ago Betelhem went to a garment Bazar held in Mesqel Flower. She saw various garments with interesting African patterns. She ended up buying a colourful dress and a pair of trousers.

"I found them quite special," she said.

Since then, Betelhem has tended to buy most of her clothes with African prints. Betelhem now buys her clothes specially designed, choosing the specific pattern and size of her order.

Betelhem's friends are also starting to follow the trend and helping to turn "niche" into "must-have".

Even though these products are getting attention from users, Aida says business has been slow since the onset of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). The demand for her products has sharply fallen.

As an option to stay afloat, Aidesho’s Design repurposed its production line to make washable face masks with African prints. It is making 200 to 300 cotton face masks a day and sells them mainly to the diaspora community. It has already started exporting its products to London and is in the process of arranging shipping to Canada, according to Aida.

There is a huge demand potential for its creative products, according to Aida.

Sarah Negussie, a 28-year-old health officer by training, is another entrepreneur that works on designs with African patterns. Passionate about art since the sixth grade, Sarah has been working on fashion since she was a college student.

“After I finished medical school," she said, "I decided to go to fashion school to make my dream happen.”

Two years ago, she started her business in her house by making small crafts and jewellery and selling them through friends and shops. She also works with designers and artists.

Sarah says that she used to face challenges finding clothes that fit her, which damaged her confidence.

“I wanted to create an environment in which women have many options for fashionable clothes that fit them,” she said.