September - 2019

40 / PEOPLE / Beauty entrepreneurs
PEOPLE / 41
Fashion model, Lemlem &
Lemlem Foundation founder
Liya
Kebede
Age
41
Heritage
Ethiopian
Born
Ethiopia
Career Highlights
One of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential
People in 2010; one of Glamour magazine’s Women
of the Year in 2013; and created one of the first
sustainable fashion labels to manufacture in Africa.
Driving Force
Promoting Africa as a source of high-end artisanal
work, while supporting maternal health and women’s
empowerment programmes.
Beauty entrepreneur
Suzie
Wokabi
Age
42
Heritage
Kenyan
Born
Nairobi
Career Highlights
Msafiri Business Award for Health & Beauty (2013);
nominated for Africa’s Most Influential Women in
Business in East Africa (2019)
Driving Force
Designing makeup products that work
for African women
Silja Magg
“I felt inspired to launch the brand after one of my visits back
to Ethiopia, when I met a group of traditional weavers”
“I found a gap in the retail cosmetics market: whatever was
available was imported and hugely overpriced”
SPOTTED WHILE she was still at school in Addis Ababa,
Liya Kebede was introduced to a modelling agency in Paris
and cemented her career a few years later in the US. In 2007,
Forbes magazine identified her as one of the top-earning
models in the world. Kebede has since appeared on the cover
of several editions of Vogue magazine, is a spokesmodel for
L’Oreal Paris, has been the Face of Estée Lauder and starred
with Jake Gyllenhaal in a Calvin Klein advert; but she’s much
more than just a pretty face.
In 2007, Kebede launched clothing brand Lemlem, which
means “to bloom and flourish” in Amharic. “I felt inspired
to launch the brand after one of my visits back to Ethiopia,
when I met a group of traditional weavers who no longer
had a market for their craft,” she says. “The core collection
is handwoven from natural cotton in Ethiopia, but we also
produce a collection made in Kenya, and we’re always looking
to expand our production across the continent with new
opportunities.”
Kebede always knew that she wanted to focus on giving
back and taking sustainable action to help women in Africa.
She served as Goodwill Ambassador with the World Health
Organization – from 2005-2011 – and, in 2006, she launched
the Lemlem Foundation to help women in Africa access
critical health services during pregnancy and childbirth.
In 2018, the Lemlem Foundation expanded its collection
of programmes to support job training and empowerment
activities, so that more women in artisan communities can
build successful livelihoods. “At Lemlem, we’re pushing the
needle so that more young women have a good future as
artisans.”
HAVING LIVED in the US for 10 years, Suzie Wokabi
returned to Kenya in 2007 to work in the media makeup industry.
She discovered that beauty products for African women
were lacking. “I found a gap in the retail cosmetics market:
whatever was available was imported and hugely overpriced,”
she says. She decided to create SuzieBeauty, her own, affordable
range of products for the African woman.
“I cofounded the brand with my husband in 2009, and
launched it onto the Kenyan market three years later,” says
Wokabi, whose early career included stints for cosmetics giants
Clinique and MAC. “We started from scratch with a lot of love
and passion for beauty, and for Africa.” SuzieBeauty offers a
full range of colour cosmetics: foundation, powder, concealer,
eye shadows, eye kohl, mascara and blusher. In 2018, Wokabi
launched the company’s skincare line, which includes makeup
remover, cleanser, toner, moisturiser and primer as well as
application brushes.
Called “the face of African beauty” by CNN and described
by Forbes magazine as “one of Kenya’s most exceptional female
entrepreneurs”, Wokabi believes in growing a brand gradually,
and not overstretching.
She’s always working on new products, and she becomes
inspired when she travels and witnesses new trends. But making
products relevant to African women remains her mandate.
“I have to localise the trends so that they work for us,” says
Wokabi. This year, she aims to launch five new products.
Wokabi has a clear message to aspiring young entrepreneurs:
“Be sure that you love everything about what you do.
It’s not easy to break into this industry, or be successful in it,
and the success stories out there all rely on passion.”