I recently went into Sachs Fifth Avenue after work because I needed these very specific shoes, and lo and behold, I found a pair  that was reasonably priced. In Sachs Fifth Ave, I generally expect everything to be $500+, and my pair was, after a ‘sale’, around $100. So I bought it.

Keza, tedesasetkuna … I went purse shopping. I saw this beautiful purse for $300,. At first I passed it because … seriously, I wasn’t about to spend that much on a purse. Keza I happened to pass by that area again and I thought, ‘What the hell! I work hard. I can afford it. Why not?’ So picked it up, walked over to the counter and surrendered my to-be purse and card.

As the woman was processing the payment I kept thinking to myself, ‘ok , min aynet qebeT honeshal. balegae lij. Spending 300 bucks  is ok, even for enjoyment, but 300 bucks for a purse? One that’ll be used 3 times a year? balegae, molqaqa, balegae, molqaqa …‘ iyalku irasen siqoTa, the lady leaned over the counter and whispered, ‘your card has been declined’.

I was looking at her like she’s crazy, because technically that was my debit card, which also has a credit line, and even the cash balance on it was many folds the price of that overpriced purse. I asked, if she was sure. She gently and quietly whispered back, ‘i tried it multiple times’. She looked so sympathetic and embarrassed for me.

Saqe meTa. I figured there must be a God, and he must be intervening. I grabbed my card back with a broad smile and bolted.

So then I called my bank to ask WTF. The customer rep said, ‘yeah, we put a hold on your card because we noticed a purchasing trend that was very different from your regular shopping habits’. LOL.

Apparently my shopping trend says shopping at Sachs Fifth Ave and/or $100 dress shoe is a lil’ too much for my qonTari style.

Temesgen, consumer-tendes-analizing-algorithm hoy. Temesgen!

We are here at work (dotmike from BlenCorp) but we are not working. One of my African buddies has created an a little gadget antenna that lets him watch the game on a small laptop hidden away in the corner of the cubical.

We have also been arguing who will make it and out of the first round and who won’t. Technically, after 2 games everyone in every round still has a chance to make it to the second round.

Although the calculation becomes a little complicated after the second game especially if there are a lot of ties and the goal differentials change in the last game. Thus, we created a web application that will calculate the odds of passing the first round. We started as 4 and by 6 we are done and it’s live here.

Qlick Qlick Qlick & Qalculate!

I haven’t been able to concentrate enough to think straight the last week let alone work. I have been watching the first world cup in Africa. Tshabalala & Drogba are my two favorite players this cup.

I have never been able to understand true fans of soccer that root for teams other than their own. For me since my country is not in I have since 1986 my first cup to watch had continental pride.

I have been lucky enough to attend eight ESFNA Tournaments here in North America and every year I am excited about the games, the gathering, the soccer games and most of all the parties.

This year is especially exciting for me because bernos™ has become a veteran at ESFNA with a booth; looking forward to seeing familiar faces as well as new ones.

Things are always hectic though and we have officially entered the post millennia world much like the world cup with an app to make things simpler.

I found ArifQuas, an iPhone application for ESFNA and the events surrounding it. I found it on Facebook and I contacted the developers to see how we can make use of it. I had been reading the reviews of the new iPhone two weeks ago as the new 4g is coming in the month. And I read that 51million iPhone have been sold and it’s not slowing; its growing and its time for us, African to enter the world of reaching our niche market through an app.

With that bernos™ has sponsored this ArifQuas application not only because we believe this is going to help our presence at soccer tourney but also because niche technology targeting previously not represented people must be supported.

We were decades behind the rest of the world for years with no real standard Unicode for Amharic. The smart developers and font designers were all independently working and the industry didn’t mature till the last couple of years.

It’s time we the people steer development of things we need by supporting or discouraging actions that help or hurt our society. Business in not everything, sometimes quality beats quantity and ArifQuas by ArifSoft a fantastic application.

Don’t take my word for it, download it on your iPhones app store and then find bernos™.

What I call reading today is not what reading is really is? I continue to buy books but just use them for reference or skim through it as fast as I can while I am simultaneously listening to music.

I can’t really remember reading a full book with no distractions. The default reading for me is skimming through the chapters.

Behaviorist, usability testers, market researchers and psychologists among others study human characteristics. My latest read was about the default makeup of a human personalities as well as day-to-day tendencies.

The study was that “the default” influences your daily lives more than what you think. For example, if you set up through your checking account to automatically deduct 200$ a month to your savings; then it takes no additional action for you to save 200$ a month – hence it’s the default.

Market researchers are so well aware of this that they make you decisions’ that better suit them.

Based on an example I once heard on NPR, regarding the cost of healthcare; doctors are more likely to order more tests on a individuals if the form they fill out for is prefilled based on symptoms. i.e. if the default form preselected check boxes by the hospitals computers, doctors spend more money on tests; compare that if the form is blank and the doctor has to write down the tests based on the patients symptoms.

The default is your brains way making some choices for you. They call it Default network

A few years ago, a client asked me to increase the number of people opting in for the monthly e-mails to customers by redesigning the e-newsletter. I redesigned it email layout without changing the content but after months of trail and error, we realized that people are 3-4 times more likely to opt in to receive emails if the checkbox signifying interest was by default checked.

The point is that the default matters! Now you don’t have to read the book

Ethiopia from olivia wyatt on Vimeo.

Filmmaker Olivia Wyatt went to Ethiopia to document the music of 13 different tribes for her a film on tribal Music on Ethiopia.

Along with the film, she took some Polaroid’s of her experiences with the locals. The shots somehow found my inbox via two sources. See more on pages 46-54!

I thought they were very worthy of note, and well fairly re-emphasizes my claim about photography that the camera doesn’t matter.

More searching online, I found the below quote story,

One night I took a mini-bus 12 hours north of Addis to witness a Zar spirit possession on a hyena-invested mountain. We left at 3 a.m. from Addis Ababa. On my bus there was a Muslim woman, a catholic priest, a six-year-old boy, and other adults. I fell asleep, but awoke at 4:30 am to p

olice men with guns at my window. Directly behind them, a mini-bus was completely turned over and the police were angry that we were traveling illegally at night, so they took us all to a tiny jail in the mountains and we were told we had to stay there until sunrise.

Everyone was staring at me; they would look in my direction and whisper and laugh, or some just stared, even the police. I decided to just go and talk to the police. I asked them questions about their life and told them what New York might be like at 4 a.m. and the next thing I know, they let us go. The entire bus was chanting “forenji, forenji, forenji!” [foreigner]. Source!

Indeed Forenji! The only thing is that she thinks Forenji means foreigner, it does and it doesn’t the origin is actually not foreigner but French and its used to describe white people not all foreigners. I think!

But what a story , and what great photos!

I just recently twitted about Zewdy who has thousands of followers on twitter & friends Facebook; just an example of a success based upon networking via web platforms.

Although most of the people that do this kind of branding are artists, like our own rawbubble, doing his writing, videos and other forms of art; there has been more and more people blogging and promoting their talents

The only problem I see with this is that there are a bunch of new people starting up a new brand every week, even in my own network and literally nothing is sustained; people come and go, and the market is diluted.

In 2004 when I started blogging, there were a handful of blogs in my network & community but now there are 100s of them. Don’t get it wrong I’m glad people are finally expressing their views and opinions; showing their personality through dozens of pictures in their Facebook profiles etc.

Right now things are so easy to start marketing and people start in one afternoon, never to follow through.

I think the only solution is to put resources together to make a bigger product. Work together; if you are thinking of starting a blog or a business venture I think people should partner up share their resources to make promote the brand together.

Not only will to help improve consistency but it will give the product a bigger platform and more resources, be it time or money.

Sharing is not selfish; not having full creative freedom is not necessarily a bad thing. It just sustains you!

Every year around this time we, at bernos, begin losing our minds, in a good way.

We start brainstorming on new shirts, Nolawi starts designing and the feedback process is never ending. We have to choose the color scheme, how much inventory we have to get, how many designs we should do for our fall collection… I could go on and on with the details but I won’t bore you to death. We love it, we never complain.

But all of this leads to our open house; For those who had the chance to visit our open houses know that it’s a ritual.

We started doing them  so that we can meet our customers. We rarely get to connect with our customers, except via email when purchases are made, or when we get requests online through Facebook, twitter or our blog. So yes, this is an opportunity for us to meet you and you to meet us. In addition, we get to introduce our latest Fall Collection.

For the last three months, Bernos tees have been available at our DC store DEKKA. DEKKA is a Fashion, Art, and Music Showroom & Retail Store in the heart of DC’s most exciting area, the U Street corridor. We’re going to showcase our fall collection at DEKKA. We’re doing a BLOCK PARTY, the bernos way.

So we are inviting all of you in the area to join us for some music, refreshments, and NEW SHIRTS. I can give you a hint, we’re bringing back some classics and some new shirts! You’ll get a chance to meet some of your fave models, connect with people and hang with us on U st. Mark your calendars!!

Bernos BLOCK PARTY:
Presenting our Fall Collection | New Tees & Classic Comebacks

Saturday Oct 24th at 3:00pm til 8pm

DEKKA :1338 U st NW 2nd flr , DC

RSVP here

I was on a real date once upon a time in a certain city. We had a bottle of wine among the other things, at a nice cozy place that was more crowded than a train during rush hour.

The tables so close together that it’s impossible to avoid eavesdropping at your neighbors.

Krazy Larry and his bud were next to us. Every once in a while he would intervene in our conversation; and yarn to us in the most abstrusely coarse voice you can imagine.

We laughed and laughed, although I didn’t understand half the things he was saying, the wine helped. Let’s just say everyone was over the limit so cackles came easily.

Krazy Larry is a pant maker in New York City. I think he gave my date a card, and told her that she would look great in his pants.

Fax me honey!”

Is email ok? No No, no emails! Fax me your address and I shall mail you a Krazy Larry pants.

Indeed she faxed him her pant size and got a call!

he called me at work – same hoarse smoker’s voice with lots of humor…”

So once she got her pants, I wanted to Google him to see if what I remember that night was real. Well…I found this post; what another person thought of him.

Krazy Larry is a character living the cool life of fashion designer in NYC. He is eccentric and vivacious and has a twisted view of life in the fast lane.

I used to paint when I was in art school and a little bit after. Eventually, I stopped while I was concentrating on improving my design skills for my career as a designer.

Now I just like to enjoy the fine arts. I keep up with what’s going on in the art world via the internet. As far as Ethiopian art and artists are concerned I am with most in the Ethiopian fine art community that there was a period in which our art was not making significant socio political commentary.

Outside of the big names that have been present since the 70’s and just like music there haven’t been major movements. But this is another topic that should be its own topic.

Now I would like to introduce to you Ezra Wube, whose work I was first introduced to years ago in 2004. I have sporadically following his work through the last couple of years.

From the amount of work coming out on his website, it seems like he is and has been working full time.

I bought the above painting called Azenes because I like the ambiguous use of physical space in the image and the colors and the depth of field in the fabrics.

I thought they were going to Leqso in special local clothing. I was attracted to the sadness but the Azene serious of painting according to the Artist:

My current Azene paintings are based on my visit to Ethiopia in August 2008. Azene is short for Gojam Azene which is the name given to a type of new colorful fabrics. Gojam is a region in the northeast, and Azene means he is sad. When I previously visited the Gojam market in 2004, the villagers wore traditional clothes.

Traditional clothes are made from cotton; they are mainly white with a strip of colorful design along the edges, visually unifying the people, creating oneness. Traditional clothes are made from scratch by the individual’s family member.

In my visit to Goajm’s market in August 2008, these traditional clothes were being replaced by Gojam Azene. Visually separating the people, these new industrial, acrylic, synthetic fabrics seemed to be favored by the villagers. They are cheap, light to wear and offer various color choices, however, it can be seen as one of the first signs of modernism erasing tradition.

Wow, so I am very excited about these painting hanging in my living room not only because of the commentary in Ethiopian tradition but also its contemporary modernism observations.

There are a few imperfect things that annoy me about the painting but I am trying to overlook them as no work is perfect, thus I don’t want to make a comment on it. I just didn’t want to shamelessly plug my painting.

More on Ezra on Abesha; and a real Gojam Azene

I saw a story recently on a TV about a high powered business man who bought a condo in New York City but was to busy to actually move in.

He hardly had any furniture in the apartment except a corner tables with lamps; no chairs, just one stool by the kitchen, apparently he doesn’t have time to sit.

The cement floors appear cold and empty glistening from the light the many windows shine and the fixtures and architecture looks like a dark futuristic contemporary with dark hard and flat surfaces.

By the time he was ready to go buy some furniture and fill the condo with junk, he didn’t want any. Now it has been years and the condo was recently featured on Architectural Digest and has been the envy of ‘ultra modern contemporary wannabes,’ like Sara here.

I recently told a girl that I put all furniture’s in the corners as I was describing my bedroom via phone conversation. Essentially all my life I have never put my bed in the middle of the room, it has to touch two walls so I can get what I call “the big empty space” in the middle of the room.

My living room also has the quoted space. Omitting a coffee table will ensure the availability of space both literally and emotionally. I generally do not put anything on the walls; I don’t want pictures want mirrors everywhere.

I want my living space to be empty and sterile. The mentioned article on the digest in which someone with high credibility on the topic said that my taste in interior design is essentially ‘fantastic’ is not only my vindication but also my validation.

I have had many arguments with my brother who I live with about throwing stuff out. Sports paraphernalia and old photos in frames have never been something I wanted to keep in plain site. Family photos in frames! hmm I really love you guys but I don’t want you to stare at me every time I take a bite on my Tuna sandwich.

I want to see my white empty wall all day. It relaxes me, gives me a free atmosphere.

Reemphasizing my taste as a cut above are the new industrial furniture designers as well as bathroom fixture designers. I am also seeing a big push from packaging designers to minimize styling’s on their products presentation.

If you don’t beleive me, just search here; its definetely in.

I am constantly looking through old photos. I really like how a photo changes the way I think about something. Its very powerful.

I once read about Kevin Carter who killed himself after winning the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in 1994 for this picture taken in Sudan a year earlier.

Including those that changed the way I think or have had a lot of influence in the world.

In no particular order here are my top 3 choices; seen above, Mandela walks free after 27 years in prison.  The image of Mandela fighting aparthied and Winnie being there fighting with him to me is betam empowering. Kinda like ‘ A change is gonna come.’

From what I read about the period, and the Black Power Movement; this picture of Tommie Smith and John Carlos is one of the most powerful I have ever seen.

On the biggest stage at the time during a live broadcast of the 1958 Olymipc Games, they took their shoes off and wore black socks to show Black Poverty and raised their arms in the Black Power Salute, while The Star-Spangled Banner played.

The movements impact not only African American identity but also on Black Socio Political influence to me is conveyed in this picture.

This picture below came before the the major droughts of the early 1980′s.

The publishers of this pictures decided not to publish this photo for a long time. But decided to enter it into competition and the photo won the
World Press Photo of the Year: 1980.

This was the start of the media blitz to cover drought in Africa and that changed the image of Africa forever.

One of the things we fight about here in bernos is how to wear the bernos tees or even any tee. Dawit likes to keep his shirts so clean looking that he washes the tees inside out.

He says it keeps it from fading and it keeps the colors of the tee not wear out. He even dries it on low heat.

One thing we agree on is American Apparel. They make the best t-shirts in the world and we like how the tees feel when we wear them. In fact our customers even compliment us on the quality of our tees.

K’naan apparently while hanging out with Beshou and Dawit said that he likes our tees because they get a lot of compliments.

Old tees

I have tweeted about how my tees never get old, because I have too many of them. Not only do I have multiple copies of each of the bernos tees, but also lots of other tees I have accumulated over the years.

I have thrown away most of the crappy free t-shirts I got from different events when bernos started. I do have a few that I have spent money on as there are companies similar to bernos I support because I love their tees. Of course the first thing I check before buying a tee is if it’s made on American Apparel, nothing compares to it.

Now after much research, I have figured out a way to make t-shirt be old overnight. So I will be picking three bernos tees; the d’afrique, Argyle Rasta, and the Made in Africa tee… & antiquing them.

Of course the risk involved in this process is not as large as you would expect because I own multiple copies of the tees.

The Process

Once you know which tee you are going to antiquate. Decide how antique you want it to look. I am going for the ‘vintage look’…extreme. But for you it might just be the natural worn in look. Preppy people like Dawit and Beshou do not like that appearance so they can go with the clean cut new tee look.

One way to fade the color of the shirt is to make it wet and then dry it in the sun for two days.

For the extreme vintage look I am going to buy ‘sodium carbonate washing soda’ & salt.

The salt is abrasive making the shirts look older. And the alkaline in the washing soda breaks down the coating that is built in the cotton threads; which is what keeps the shirts stiff and crisp.

Then you start your washing machine on hot water. The heat will help weaken the cotton fibers. Once the water level is full, dump the Soda/Salt mixture and detergent.

Then dry it. If the design is still too crisp, use sand paper to fade it out and repeat the wash. Then you have your own bernos vintage tee. You will be more stylish than I am.

The 25th of the Ethiopian soccer tournament in DC was well organized and well executed. Now it is on to the windy city of Chicago, and ESFNA has been steadily improving as an organization. The vendors are becoming more noteworthy and offering better products for our niche market. The facilities have noticeably improved, since the venues of high schools and community colleges and so has commercial and monetary aspects of the tournament. People often complained about ESFNA and their inadequacies. However, we must disagree because they have come a long way, and love going.

What if any problems do you have with ESFNA?

AND what are you looking forward to in Chicago?

This year bernos is looking forward to topping the fashion show we had at LOVE, DC’s biggest nightclub, with a live photo shoot in one of Chicago’s hottest nightclubs.

We’ve decided to put a twist on our event this year. We will have Model’s and a photographer in one of Chicago’s state of the art Avila nightclub.

What is a Fashionista?

You. We believe that everyone has their own style and sets their own trends. We don’t believe in following a trend, we believe in making a statement. We’re working with Bernos’ own Beshou and her Rendez-Vous crew to pull off Thursday night, July 2nd, at Avila Night club.

The bernos booth

We are going to live for 7 days in Chicago, full time, full crew, stocked and ready to meet new Midwestern folks.  Come by the bernos booth to get your tees (including a limited edition of the original Addis Ababa Classic). Take a picture and get to know us.

Do I need to say more! She is the champ of folding.

I don’t know how to fold, so it always impressing to see some people organize their cloth so well. My sister probably has the most organized closet from the people I know.

And then their is Dawit, he is very annoying with his perfection when it comes to folding and organizing stuff.  I send mine out to the washers, it comes back  as seen here.

Bernos is back at it again! And this time we’re here to spruce up your wardrobe, with some African flavor. Who says a t-shirt can’t be sexy, fashionable and make statement?

We have 2 new shirts that will be available for sale. Be the first one to purchase your shirt! We usually don’t do open houses, so this would be a great time for us to meet our clientele, our customers and our avid blog followers.

If you’ve been to our events in the past you know what you’re in for and if this is your first time…you don’t want to miss it.

4NXC Boutique is allowing us to host the launch of the new line with an in store event.
Beverages will be provided by Blue Storm Energy.

Hope to see you all there! For more info check out our website.

Most of you probably have never heard of a Holga. A Holga is a camera that is down to the bare bone of its essential; A  hole for the light to expose the film.

Years ago I actually built a camera from scratch, a pinhole camera based on a cardboard can. Those of you that are connected with me and the bernos crew on facebook ( your cue to become our fan) know that we have a group of sorts who go out and experiment with our fancy SLR camera’s.

I read a website called Ken Rockwell and according to him the camera doesn’t matter— and the more I know and read about photography techniques the more I realize there is so much about photography outside of technical specifications of your camera. Obviously its very important to know how to manipulate your camera to the extreme. Understanding how a camera works and how it operates, what an aperture does; is more important than how expensive your camera is.

In layman’s by wiki “The Holga is an inexpensive, medium format 120 film toy camera, made in China, appreciated for its low-fidelity aesthetic.”

Take a look at this wonderful shot I found on Flickr.  Very nice photo and I probably would not be able to recreate unless I was there the moment the subject turned away to look in the field of endless yellow flowers.

Today I got my Holga in the mail and I spent the evening customizing it via youtube as you can see in the picture above. Tomorrow I will take my first shot and in month I will get it washed.

Dawit is organizing a brochure of sorts. He calls it the “Bernos Look Book.”

I don’t know why but now, even models are calling their portfolio a ‘look book’ these days. Even Lily is calling her slideshow gallery a Look Book!

I am not a fashionista per say, I used to be. I like fashion though; I appreciate all forms of expression.

I am a scruffy looking guy that is casually dressed; in the summer its t-shirts of course; in the winter its regular pants or jeans with a sweater.  It doesn’t help with the ladies, I assume. Clean cut is in.

I rarely shave, my hair is long and my clothes are more cavalier than dressy. The older I get the more casual I have gotten. It helps I am usually sole creative guy at work in the middle of a lot of business people.

So for creative inspiration I look at “Look Book,” because I love looking. It’s a sort of Sartorialist with a social and random aspect to it.

As far as shoes are concerned, it’s important! Apparently it’s a major social statement for women as well. Both in a Carrie Bradshaw sense, and how it’s used as an indicator of his social status and sense of style a man.

Most people lack a sense of taste, I believe. If you don’t have good taste, no amount of money can fix your major fashion issues. Yes, you can shop at Armani Exchange all you want but … beqaaA!

Again I am not saying I am a fashionista! Yet I have worn some really nice shoes and some really expensive shoes.

I am now wearing nice shoes, but not really ‘a really nice shoes.’ I have now as in the past two years been wearing decent comfortable penny loafers almost everyday.

I wear the same one almost everyday for weeks and even months. I get one that goes with everything but is not perfect for everything thing.

I love how I don’t have to think about which shoes I am wearing today! Sometimes I get compliments. It gets really old, the colors fade, the shoes changes shapes molding my feet.

I get my shoes shined, if I get a chance, at the airport or at the mall. Sometime I have to drop it off at the shoe repair shop. My shoes, although nice have a the worked look- or yetashe

I get it back and I keep wearing it, till it dies. And then I bury it. Sometime I miss it.

Just because my shoes are almost always an old dark brown penny loafer, doesn’t mean I fit your profile of someone who lacks style. It’s just I value the labor of working my shoes in.

This is going to be a series of post with stuff I really like.  Basically I will post the stuff maybe a picture or a video or a link and a little description.

Hey I like a lot of different stuff; let me know what you like?

1. Ergonomics office chair – since I spend a lot of time on the computer and I am so restless, I like to have the perfect chair, I am consistently unhappy with the design and flexibility of most office chairs. I just ordered the below a few minutes ago.



2. Basil- I love the taste smell freshness of basil, its one of those things that makes food m mmmm so gooood you want to bite your fingers. You can’t make any type of decent pasta with no basil, not dried old basil, fresh basil – it only lasts about a week in the fridge so you have to make something good everyday. And don’t cook it but use it as a sort of garish, put it on after you are done cooking.



3. Hot Coffee- There is nothing more important than the first coffee in the morning. I live like a zombie, who hasn’t gotten enough sleep in weeks. I have hard time waking up and the coffee is the only thing that gives me the energy to go from the morning to early afternoon. I love the smell, taste and the feeling coffee gives me.

]]> http://www.bernos.org/blog/2008/12/08/stuff-i-like/feed/ 70 http://www.bernos.org/blog/2008/12/01/time-to-give/ http://www.bernos.org/blog/2008/12/01/time-to-give/#comments Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:55:48 +0000 DawitK http://www.bernos.org/blog/?p=1122

Cyber Monday is the ceremonial kick-off to the online holiday shopping season occurring between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas.

As is the tradition here at bernos, we are doing the same great deal we have done for the past two Christmas.

Free Shipping on all bernos T-shirts between Dec 1st and Dec 18th. December 18th will be the last day we can guarantee that an order received will reach our U.S. and Canada customers before Christmas.

As usual, we thank you for shopping with us and please continue to Tell A Friend about bernos…

Happy Shopping!

While the temperature is cooling down our online hours is heating up, as we are pleased to commence our latest urban inspired fall design. This season we wanted to blend our strong African influences by infusing the colors of Rastafarians, the spirit of Fela Kuti, and our love affair with earth’s color.

Afrobeat

Afrobeat is a term coined by Nigerian born band leader Fela Kuti. Popularized during the 1960/70s, Afrobeat encompasses musical styles from various genres. Kuti used native African harmonies and rhythms combining different elements like jazz, funk, fusion, African chant and structured them. The rich sound echoed the political struggle not only by Africans but also by African-Americans during this period.

Our aim for the Afrobeat concept was to encompass both the political struggle of blacks and the influence music plays in strain for survival. The bernos Afrobeat is available in Cranberry Red American Apparel Shirt for $19.95!

Argyle Rasta

Argyle pattern which consists of diamond shaped blocks against a colored background has its roots in Scotland as early as 16th century. Although the pattern has been used in fashion through the 19th century; the preppy look brought back the argyle with a vengeance in the 80′s and it’s been commercial every since.

The Rasta Argyle concept is an establishment of ‘Rastafarnism’ in popular culture. Our design with bright Rastafarian colors of red, green, and yellow is juxtaposed within the Argyle pattern. The bernos Argyle Rasta is available in Heather Grey American Apparel Shirt for $22.95.

d’afrique II

Why refurbish and re-stock you might ask? The answer is simple…We got your blog comments, emails, text messages, and from some of you, your voicemail. We get it! You want d’afrique…you get d’afrique! We are re-launching the popular shirt with bigger font and more prominent graphic. Now you can claim your roots from miles away. As stated before, d’afrique represents our portrait of life in Africa layered with the rich detail of our struggle, celebration of our roots, and our hope for unity. The bernos d’afrique is available in Brown American Apparel Shirt for $19.95.

13 Months of Sunshine; that is the title of this film by Yehdego Abeselom who I have heard about for a about 4 years. I have been unenthusiastic because of my indifference to the title since its close resemblance to the trademark of the Ethiopian Tourism commission.

Regardless, I have seen pieces of the film over the internet for a while, I had a slight understanding of the plot line, the cast – I met a few of them during the Ethiopian Soccer Tournament in DC.

So finally, I was able to catch this film via screening here in DC on Saturday. And since it’s been a long time in the making I had built up my expectation somewhat high.

The plot line had so much depth, intertwined with the theme of Coffee and 13 months.

It’s a story of a girl from Ethiopia who needs a green card and pursues it through a fake marriage by paying an Ethiopian man who is in need of cash to start a business.

It was a believable story that is somewhat based on reality – according to the posters. I can relate to it – excluding a modeling career in the within the Ethiopian community, the lead female was somewhat pursuing via an African American agent.

The film was all digital – and with great sound and clean cinematography. At the beginning there were some stylistic differences – meaning it seemed like the director was experimenting with different styles but once I got to about 20 minutes into the film I didn’t notices it much.

I was entrenched in the story- I loved the depth of each character with all the stereotypes of people we know.

The soundtrack – filled with Bole2Harlem and Burntface was amazing. Was singing along to all the songs I was familiar with.

At the end, some people were crying – I was emotional as well.

As critical as I was, with some part of the film – this was a fantastic film with a great story. Yehedego is a genius in the making. I look forward more films in the future because we have many stories that need to be told.

I was sitting on a high stool in the lounge area of a local bar. My side-line hearing could hear the topic of discussion from all sides. The classic club conversations: a little bit of hellos, laughing, some Obama stuff, & some do you have a light?

Then a girl wearing a bernos ‘I Heart Africa‘ t-shirt shows up and joins the congregation of six.

I love bernos I was going to buy a tee but everything on their website was soldout!“

I was curiously listening since they had no idea who I was. It’s interesting listening to people talking about your work without them realizing who you are…des siil.

Checking the bernos email; we get the same topic questions everyday, except this time it started out differently. The guy mentioned the number of emails we must get.

I’m sure I am one of thousands of emails you are getting about your products being out of stock. However, is there any way of knowing when you will have your shirts back in stock…”

He is right. Although we have brought out new shirts consistently, we are always out of stock on something. This topic has been discussed before and to the best of our ability we have tried to explain our predicament. In the past two years, the demand for bernos tees has been growing noticeably.

but really why can’t you have everything in stock?

If you guys are selling them- why not print more? We are often asked this question.We like the creative process it takes to come up with new designs and think we can do even better moving forward.

As a growing company it’s important we set certain goals for us to achieve. Last year it was to move from Ethio-centric designs to more Afrocentric designs without losing our base market and our brand, the bernos brand. We achieved this; however, there is still room for growth.

We think that the target market is neither too small for our business model nor too large that we don’t have the time and monetary resources to market to it. Thus, a little late but now we think we are positioned well to achieve our biggest goal yet: to enter the wholesale market, if you saw our first TV interview recently we are one third of the way there.

Wholesale

Over the last half of the year we have gotten many emails from stores all over the North America showing interest in carrying the bernos brand. The emails range from buyers asking to house our shirts in their stores, to agents asking to market our shirts via various outlets. We have been hesitant to just jump in and give this a shot because wholesale brings with it a lot of headache of its own if there is no structural platform to keep it organized.

So we must consider all the issues that may arise from this venture and first answer all the technical questions that arise when entering remote wholesale. Regardless we are planning to be in stores before the end of this year.

Online

This is the backbone of bernos, because our market base is spread throughout the world. We want to continue to grow online. But we have come to realize there are few things we lacked at the beginning stages; one is that we didn’t have a scalable platform. Scalable platform not only offers a wide range of useful tools, but also makes buying and processing purchases much simpler.

In short, we will be able to offer coupons, multiple payment options, different shipping methods, affiliation possibilities etc.

So we have hired an ecommerce specialist to make this scalable platform for us, now that we can afford it. This will allow us to concentrate on the marketing aspect of the bernos instead of the technical.

No More Unisex

For both wholesale and online- we also need to fix the sizing issue; two different sections for the ladies and gents. Now ladies you can have the fitted shirts that hugs you in all the right places. This is also standard practice in the t-shirt industry and we have to standardize if we are going to compete with the big boys.

Thus, with September in mind we will begin our reconstruction of bernos. Unfortunately we will not be having too much in stock nor will we restock sold out items until then.

Our plan is by late September we will launch the better bernos with four new and restocked shirts. Until then what we have available is what is currently in inventory. We hope our fans won’t be too upset with us and understand we are merely trying to improve so that you may have a pleasant bernos experience.

Our first TV interview ever. On Medill News Washington came when we had our monthly meeting and interviewed us. Watch video below

Three young immigrants make a fashion statement

by Alysia Patterson – Jul 17, 2008

WASHINGTON — In the world of African affairs, Ethiopia and Eritrea are historically unfriendly neighbors. But in the fashion world style transcends geopolitical tussles.

Three young African immigrants — one from Eritrea and two from Ethiopia — joined forces to create a t-shirt line that fuses together their old and new cultures. And they’ve just found out it’s a winning combination.

Have you heard? If you haven’t, the Ethiopian Annual Tourney is going to be in DC this year. Bernos is going to be there! So make sure you find our booth.

For our customer around the world, I am sorry we won’t get to meet you in person but as promised, you get 1st dibs on the reprinted shirts.

We have by popular demand, conceded and brought you two of the most popular’ Ethiopian themed bernos tees.

Ethiopian-Alien: The Traditional Ethiopian Scroll portrait is both a religious and cultural image which has represented Ethiopian for many generations. This iconic imagery has been and is currently in use in both commercial and fine art. This face has special meaning for those living outside of Ethiopia, because it has resemblance to the extra terrestrial face, which we happen to be while living as aliens. Ethiopian-Alien in gold available now for only $19.95.

Desta Keremela: Desta is the brand name of a popular candy that was made in Ethiopia. Keremela means candy and Desta means happy. Desta Keremela is the first candy ever manufactured in Ethiopia. The bernos Desta Keremela tee is also available now for only $19.95.

We think we got enough tees produced for everyone in all sizes, but we wanted to give you, our online customers 1st dibs before we sell them all out at the bernos soccer booth.

The Big $6 OFF

Last but not least, we do have a sale, a big $6 off on the Addis Ababa Classic tee. This one is dedicated to all recent college grads that are broke and jobless. For $16.95 which is less than 4 gallons of gas, less than 2 drinks at the club, you can have one of the few left. So get your tee now while it lasts.

Skinny is out; well skinny is ‘in’ but not as ‘in’ as it was in the late nineties. Dresses are definitely ‘in.’

Girls are wearing light colored summer high wasted dress. That helps plump girls look more appealing while making skinny look bony.

Controversies were stirred up over the last five years. Bony models are banned is Spain and Milan has made adjustments. The wolves; the woman’s advocacy groups and the medical associations have been crying ever since…since forever.

They would like to think they changed the course what’s ‘in,’ or  what’s ‘out.’ But it’s market that has decided.

Fat is not in, this is not the renaissance, this is not a Goya painting; plump is IN!

It was a hot weekend night. I went to dinner and then the text invite comes in. This is the place. I will stop by. I will check it out. The girls are young; they are independent minded, like one that told me, “Why shouldn’t I?”

She was chattering about playing the field. She would like to get laid once in a while even though she hasn’t found her man. Whatever the reason, I just like to look at them. If nothing else the view is nice.

I decided to join the guys outside, drinking to the moonlight and the summer dresses. Indeed the view was nice.

She was young, very young I suspect. If this was 1999 she would have been ‘the girl,’ the one everyone stared at. With her heels she looked taller than Dikembe Mutombo. The ribbon is barely holding her hair together. Her tight top showed her whole bare back, but nothing was covering the black bra. She didn’t care, it seemed like she was going to the neighborhood pharmacy.

She looked like an extra in a 80′s Madonna’s video. I would complain that she was blocking my view, but she was so skinny. If this was 1989, she would have an open invitation to fashion week runways. But this is 2008, and plump is IN!

“Oh my god, she is so skinny! I like some meat on my bones,” he explained. Then the conversation changed to various topics. Their eyes didn’t focus on the ‘bony girl,’ they were looking at the ‘meaty girls’ in the high-waisted summer dresses. Indeed plump is definitely IN!