BOLE: The Heartbeat of Addis Street Fashion

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Cropped pants, ripped clothing, button-up shirts, big boots, strange hairstyle, dreadlocks, and Afros are some of the styles that are part of the new overwhelming street fashion scene of Addis.

The presence of a multi-billion dollar fashion industry is non-existent in Addis; it’s the streets of the city that give a platform to what fashion is here.

Apart from the mainstream cultures of of short hair, jeans, suits and dresses, Addis streets give an alternative style. Like many other cities in the world, the urban community with a collective identity is influenced by the youth subculture. This subculture goes further than just outfits; it is a lifestyle that intersects with music, aesthetics, and more in order to use it as a form of expression.

The colorful sight is very interesting. So many cultures intersect and fuse at the same time. One cannot escape the scene of the heartbeat of Addis’ fashion bole street fashion.

The hippies, rockers (with rings, many piercings,) hipsters (glasses, jeans, beanies, sneakers, ties, suspenders), gothic fashion (black clothing, heavy coats, black makeup), preppy (argyle sweaters, chinos, madras, Nantucket red pants, boat shoes), colorful apparel, with many piercings are fused in the contrasting city of Addis.

Whether they are trying to make a statement with the outfits, accessories and hairstyles or not, the Bole neighborhood seems to be the area where fashion in mainstream and alternative forms exists.

“What do I wear today?” might be the phrase or a serious question for some, where outfits are more than outfits but rather a form of expression to pass a massage to others.

Do outfits express the lifestyle one wants to pass or is clothing just imitations of the media and the sub-culture from the different social media. The street fashionistas of Addis Ababa have their own things to say regarding that.

Walking around Bole, many pedestrians are very comfortable in talking about their fashion, music and the value of what their outfit is about.

With a jean jacket, black tights with safety pins, and a ponytail, Selam who is walking around Kenenisa Hotel was confused about why she was being asked about her outfits. For her, clothes are to be worn, nothing else, and when she buys them there is no overthinking, she just buys what she things looks good on her. Beauty seems to matter more than anything and she follows that trend.

Roaming around Bole, two girls, Kalkidan Zegeye and Marin Sirak, with the 90s style African American throwbacks are comfortably walking the streets.

With short brown military boots, an old school white sweater, ripped jeans, green eyeliner, pink lipstick and colored hair, outfits are an expression of one’s self for Kalkidan.. The question was: “What does your outfit say?” She replied “free, cool and funny.”

She does not just pick clothes; she looks for the different fashion magazines and Facebook pages to look for different outfits. That is why Kalkidan says “fashion is a way of life to express what you want to say.”