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Xufan is an Ethiopian Afrofuturistic fashion and lifestyle brand founded by designer and digital artist Solome Kiflu, who is also credited as Solome Asfaw in materials connected with the Creative DNA and Studio Smithfield programmes. Based within Ethiopia’s evolving contemporary design scene, Xufan brings fashion into conversation with Ethiopian heritage, gaming, digital culture, science fiction, fantasy and modern streetwear. Rather than treating clothing only as a collection of products, the brand approaches design as world-building: an imaginative process through which garments, characters, emotions and cultural references can inhabit the same visual universe.
The word Xufan means “throne” in Amharic. Within the brand’s philosophy, however, the throne is not simply a reference to ceremonial power or Ethiopia’s royal history. It becomes a metaphor for recognising one’s worth, claiming one’s identity and developing the confidence to occupy space without apology.
This interpretation gives the brand its emotional foundation. Xufan connects the idea of the throne with self-discovery, individuality and empowerment. Its collections are presented as invitations to enter an alternative reality in which cultural memory and personal imagination can coexist. Experimental silhouettes, functional details, and cinematic styling serve as tools through which the wearer may explore belonging, freedom, and self-expression.
For Kiflu, this interest in identity grew from personal experience. In an interview conducted during the 2026 Creative DNA Ethiopia residency, she described the brand as emerging from a period of feeling different, moving between cultural influences and searching for a clearer understanding of herself. Fashion became a way of processing those experiences. Culture, futurism, and emotion could be brought together in a practice that fostered confidence, personal reflection, and mental well-being.
This personal dimension helps distinguish Xufan from fashion that uses futurism mainly as a visual effect. Its speculative imagery is connected to an internal journey. The imagined worlds surrounding the clothes provide space to consider who people are, how they relate to their histories and who they might yet become.
Kiflu studied fashion in Addis Ababa and gained professional experience with African Mosaique, the Ethiopian fashion and lifestyle platform established by designer Anna Getaneh. That experience placed her within a creative environment devoted to African design, presentation and international exchange before she developed Xufan’s distinctive language.
An earlier stage of her entrepreneurial journey is documented by the United Nations Capital Development Fund. In March 2023, UNCDF identified Solome Kiflu as the owner of Shadez Wear, an e-commerce fashion store that was then using Telegram to communicate with customers. Shadez Wear participated in an Ethiopian digitalisation pilot developed by UNCDF and Google and implemented with Africa 118.
The initiative worked with 100 Ethiopian micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, half of which were women-led or women-owned. Participating businesses received support with online profiles, digital literacy, business-data validation and individual digital-marketing advice. The programme was designed to help enterprises become more visible online, strengthen their commercial information and improve their readiness for digital financial services.
Although public documentation does not establish a formal rebranding timeline between Shadez Wear and Xufan, the earlier business demonstrates Kiflu’s experience with fashion entrepreneurship and digital commerce. Xufan’s current identity takes that digital familiarity into a more conceptual space, where technology is not only a selling tool but also part of the creative language.
Xufan sits at the meeting point of physical dress and digital imagination. Its references extend from Ethiopian history and cultural identity to science fiction, fantasy narratives, gaming environments, Japanese aesthetics and contemporary streetwear. These influences do not appear as isolated themes. They are combined to create a visual world in which the ancient and the speculative can be encountered together.
Gaming is particularly relevant to the way the brand thinks about character and transformation. In games, clothing often communicates a character’s origin, abilities, allegiances and emotional development. Xufan applies a related form of narrative thinking to fashion. A silhouette can suggest protection or power; a functional element can imply movement or adaptation; a colour may establish the emotional atmosphere of an imagined environment.
Science fiction and fantasy offer a similar freedom. They allow the designer to move beyond literal representations of Ethiopian culture and consider how cultural knowledge might travel into hypothetical futures. This is important to Xufan’s Afrofuturist position. Heritage is not presented as something fixed in an earlier period. It remains active, capable of entering new technologies, new stories and new forms of dress.
Kiflu has also explored the relationship between colours, shapes, emotional states and different forms of energy. Her work considers how clothing may affect the wearer psychologically as well as visually. In this sense, a Xufan garment is conceived not only as an object to be observed but as part of an experience one involving mood, identity, imagination and human connection.
Xufan’s growing international profile has been supported by the British Council’s Creative DNA programme. Creative DNA was established to help early-stage fashion businesses across Sub-Saharan Africa strengthen their commercial knowledge, creative networks and access to wider markets. In Ethiopia, the programme has been implemented with local partners including iceaddis and Creative Hub Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian programme combines business incubation with mentoring, design development, market preparation, digital coaching and opportunities for professional exchange. Its purpose is not to impose a single international model on participating brands. Instead, designers are encouraged to build commercially informed businesses while retaining the cultural and creative qualities that make their work distinctive.
Xufan has been presented by Creative DNA Ethiopia and recognised at the Hub of Africa Addis Fashion Week. These platforms have helped position the brand within a new generation of Ethiopian designers who are engaging with international fashion while developing their own visual systems and narratives.
For Kiflu, the programme has also strengthened the way she communicates Xufan’s ideas. She has spoken about learning to tell the brand’s story more clearly and gaining greater confidence in presenting its identity. This is especially valuable for a label whose meaning extends beyond the immediate appearance of its clothes. The more layered the creative universe, the more important it becomes to express that universe in language, imagery, presentation and customer experience.
In early 2026, Kiflu joined the Ethiopian phase of the Creative DNA x Studio Smithfield exchange. The programme brought together designers from Ethiopia, Kenya, Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom for a week of workshops, studio encounters and discussions in Addis Ababa. Participants included Karoline Vitto, Renata Brenha, Yaku Stapleton, Bettydora Odhiambo and Chido Kaseke.
One of the residency’s practical sessions took place at the Mafi Fashion Academy and Lab, founded by Ethiopian designer Mahlet Afework. During a pattern-cutting workshop, Kiflu completed a fully pleated bustier and skirt. The exercise demonstrated how technical construction can become part of Xufan’s sculptural and narrative approach to clothing.
The designers also visited Sabahar and Muya, two important Ethiopian textile enterprises. Sabahar works with eri silk and cotton through processes involving spinning, dyeing, weaving, sewing and finishing, while Muya produces handmade textiles, garments and homeware for an international clientele. These visits offered direct insight into Ethiopia’s handweaving knowledge and the many stages through which an artisanal textile is created.
At Hanu Bet, a concept store and creative community space led by Haymanot Honelgn, participants attended a weaving masterclass. Further sessions examined digital innovation, including the creative possibilities of artificial intelligence, virtual-reality runways and interactive textiles. These conversations were particularly relevant to Xufan because they connected Ethiopia’s physical craft traditions with the digital environments already central to the brand’s imagination.
A storytelling workshop at Gallery 11 introduced participants to Sem-enna Werq, or “Wax and Gold,” the Ethiopian literary tradition in which an apparent surface meaning contains a deeper interpretation. The idea offers a useful way of understanding Xufan. The visible garment may be the “wax,” while its emotional, cultural and speculative meanings form the “gold” beneath it.
The meeting of handcraft and digital innovation is one of the most promising aspects of Xufan’s development. These fields are sometimes presented as opposites: one associated with inherited techniques and the other with an imagined technological future. Xufan’s work suggests that they can instead become part of the same story.
A digitally conceived world can still be shaped by the knowledge of cloth, pleating, drape and construction. In the same way, a traditional textile practice need not remain confined to familiar forms. It can enter contemporary silhouettes, speculative narratives and new forms of image-making.
This approach offers an expansive interpretation of Ethiopian fashion. It recognises history without limiting Ethiopian creativity to historical reproduction. It also embraces technology without treating innovation as culturally neutral. The future proposed by Xufan remains connected to place, memory and identity.
The Creative DNA x Studio Smithfield initiative was announced by the British Council, Paul Smith’s Foundation and workspace organisation Projekt as a peer-to-peer exchange linking designers from the United Kingdom and Sub-Saharan Africa. The programme provides mentorship, production support, professional introductions, and opportunities to engage with buyers, the press, and other parts of the international fashion industry.
Kiflu was selected as the Ethiopian delegate alongside designers representing Kenya and Zimbabwe, while the UK participants included Yaku Stapleton, Karoline Vitto and Renata Brenha. Following the Addis Ababa programme, the African designers were due to continue the exchange through a six-week London placement connected with Studio Smithfield.
Xufan is also included among the designers announced for Africa Fashion Week London 2026. AFWL’s official presentation describes the label as an Ethiopian Afrofuturistic fashion and lifestyle brand that blends heritage, futuristic design, gaming culture, cinematic fashion, and streetwear. Xufan is listed within the event’s 4 p.m. catwalk programme.
As of July 2026, Africa Fashion Week London’s wider programme is scheduled to run from 17 to 23 August, with its principal live-show activities taking place during the closing part of the week. The 2026 edition introduces 8 Northumberland Avenue as a runway venue and expands the event through British Council activities and a “Shop the Runway” retail concept. Because these events remain forthcoming at the time of publication, they should be described as scheduled rather than completed appearances.
Xufan belongs to a generation of African labels for which fashion can operate simultaneously as clothing, art, narrative and digital experience. Its importance lies not simply in the use of futuristic imagery, but in the way that imagery is grounded in questions of identity.
The throne at the centre of the brand’s name is ultimately personal. It represents the point at which an individual recognises a right to exist fully within their own history and imagination. Through cinematic silhouettes, emotional storytelling, and an open dialogue between Ethiopian culture and speculative design, Xufan presents fashion as a space where that recognition can take form.
As its Creative DNA journey continues, the brand is entering a wider international conversation without abandoning the experiences from which it emerged. Its evolving work demonstrates that Ethiopian fashion can look backwards and forwards at once, drawing strength from cultural memory while constructing new worlds for the future.
Africa Fashion Week London. (2026, June 5). Xufan.
Africa Fashion Week London. (2026). 4pm catwalk: AFWL2026 showcasing designers.
Africa Fashion Week London. (2026, July). AFWL2026 programme.
iceaddis. (2026). Creative DNA Ethiopia: Fashion business incubation programme.
Jennings, H. (2026, April 13). In Addis Ababa: Creative DNA x Studio Smithfield Ethiopia residency. Nataal.
Paul Smith’s Foundation. (2026, February 2). New project announcement: Creative DNA x Studio Smithfield.
United Nations Capital Development Fund. (2023, March 29). UNCDF partners with Google to accelerate the growth and resilience of Ethiopia’s MSMEs through digitalization.
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