In the heart of Stockholm, thousands of miles from the red earth and golden light of Addis Ababa, a quiet revolution in fashion is unfolding. TEMESGEN is not just a clothing brand; it is a cultural bridge, a narrative archive, a homecoming stitched in cotton, wool, and memory.
Founded in 2024 by Jimmie Temesgen Sandberg and Cordelia O’Brien, TEMESGEN grew from a convergence of personal pilgrimage and shared creative vision. Together they craft garments that hum with history and pulse with modernity, pieces that don’t simply clothe the body but speak to the spirit.
“We wanted to create something real, something authentic,” says Cordelia. “Not just fashion for fashion’s sake, but a story you could wear.”
For Jimmie, TEMESGEN is more than a brand; it is reclamation. Adopted from Ethiopia as a baby and raised in Sweden, his early life was marked by distance between geographies, cultures, even language.
“I didn’t know much about my origins or my home country growing up,” he says. “But in my late teens, I felt this pull. I started researching, learning, and eventually, I went back.”
Those return trips to Addis were not just visits but rites of passage. One day, walking through Kasanchis with his aunt, Jimmie saw painted patterns and symbols on the walls and stopped cold.
“There was something so familiar, so powerful. That moment planted a seed. I knew I wanted to create something inspired by what I saw and the feeling I felt. It was as if the city had left breadcrumbs just for me.”
That seed became the foundation of an aesthetic philosophy: fashion as memory, stitched with meaning.
Back in Stockholm, fresh from fashion studies in London, Jimmie reached out to Cordelia, a fellow creative and graphic designer. What began as a conversation became a collaboration.
“We clicked immediately,” says Cordelia. “There was synergy, a shared mission. We both wanted to create something that honored culture while feeling contemporary and global.”
Their partnership blends form and feeling: Jimmie brings narrative depth and fashion direction while Cordelia translates vision into sharp design and symbolic nuance. Together they have built a brand that is as intellectually rigorous as it is emotionally resonant.
Unveiled at Stockholm Fashion Week, TEMESGEN’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection Homecoming is a tender meditation on diasporic identity.
“It’s a return not just to a place,” says Jimmie, “but to a feeling.”
This season inhabits the in-betweenness of those who straddle two worlds. The collection whispers in Amharic, with words like bet (home) and andinet (unity) hidden in prints, embroideries, and linings, like mantras only the wearer knows.
The palette is elemental: black, brown, sand. Black for memory, brown for soil, sand for the shifting nature of belonging. Silhouettes balance tension and harmony as sharply tailored coats meet soft draping, and cropped jackets pair with elongated trousers. Each garment seeks equilibrium, just like diaspora life.
TEMESGEN rejects fast trends in favor of permanence. Every pleat, dart, and seam reads like a line of poetry.
“Every stitch tells a story,” says Cordelia. “We wanted the cuts to be clean, but the meaning layered. Tailoring is our language.”
The collection was produced in collaboration with Unitex, a Swedish micro-factory, using fabrics sourced from Rekotex, a platform for repurposed high-quality deadstock textiles. It is slow fashion: ethical, circular, and uncompromising in detail.
At the heart of Homecoming is a reverence for Ge’ez, Ethiopia’s ancient script. After months of research into Ethiopia’s visual history, Jimmie and Cordelia reimagined Ge’ez letters not as type but as textile.
“Each letter is a pattern in itself,” Jimmie explains. “It felt like a shame that no one was highlighting their beauty.”
These symbols are woven quietly into garments, etched on buttons, printed on linings, stitched into seams. A language not shouted but discovered.
TEMESGEN is more than fashion; it is philosophy, a love letter to those who live between worlds.
“We’re not just designing clothes,” Jimmie says. “We’re designing possibility for people who carry two worlds inside them. We want to make garments that feel like armor but also like home.”
TEMESGEN is a name. A memory. A bridge between Addis and Stockholm. Born from longing, landing in love. A language of fabric. A feeling of home.
