LEMLEM

One of Liya Kebede's proudest achievements came in the mail. Among the bills and catalogs was an envelope with designs for the tags to be sewn into every garment made by Lemlem, her new line of scarves and children's wear. And there, in plain letters, were three little words that amounted to one big triumph: made in Ethiopia.

Bear in mind, the Addis Ababa native—who now lives in Manhattan with her husband, Kassy; their 7-year-old son, Suhul; and their 2-year-old daughter, Raee—has bragging rights to a few other accomplishments: In addition to being a top model (she first made a name for herself in 2000 on the Milan runways) and an actress, she was named a World Health Organization goodwill ambassador in 2005 for raising awareness of health risks to mothers and children in the developing world. In 2006, she launched the Liya Kebede Foundation to address the same concerns.

The collections are made of easy-to-care-for cotton. "They're chic and ethnic," she points out, "made with traditional techniques like embroidery and hand weaving." Men do the hand-weaving; women do the intricate embroidery.

Calling on Ethiopian traditions (lemlem means "to bloom" in Amharic), those Lemlem tags represent “a wonderful way to be able to donate and help people," she says. "Yet at the end of the day, Ethiopia has to get out of poverty by economic power and by giving people jobs—it's like that expression, 'Give a man a fish ... teach a man to fish....'" She views Lemlem, which exposes local weavers to Western markets, as a small step in what will hopefully be the start of an industry.