“From the start, the intention was never to be a Band-Aid or emergency relief response,” Berhe-Lumax explains. “Whether you are a recipient, donor, or a volunteer, it’s one language,” she adds of her approach. On Community Supported Agriculture distribution prep days, her ground-floor studio that blends into the resdential block spills over with volunteers packing seasonal produce. ”It feels like after school,” she says. “I’m not ready to go home because it feels like home.” 

Her personal life is similarly honed by the contours of her daily surroundings. When it comes to her style, and the brands she gravitates to, her long-term philosophy sticks: “If I find something I like, I wear it to death or I get two,” she says. Case in point: her cigarette-leg Theory trousers she found 17 years ago. “I saved them forever and wore them to threads,” she recalls. Once something works, she devotes herself to it. 

Born in Eritrea before immigrating to Sweden as a child, Berhe-Lumax has been in New York since 2005. An avid runner, her routes from her home in Clinton Hill through Bed-Stuy crisscross past businesses that host refrigerators, like Little Grenjai and Botani Café. In her downtime, she’s a familiar face in the neighborhoods: often nestled in a booth at Dick & Jane’s BarRoom on Malcolm X Boulevard, or flipping through early-edition tomes that line the walls of Dear Friend Books on Tompkins Avenue, both on her list of what she jokingly refers to as her fixations. “Happy place,” Berhe-Lumax muses. “That’s what I want One Love to be.” 

Photography: Victoria Hely-Hutchinson 

Fashion: Ian Bradley

Photo Assistant: Alec Vierra

Fashion Assistant: Trey Hemmings

Hair Stylist: Cassandra Normil 

Makeup Artist: Whittany Robinson at The Only Agency

Production: The Morrison Group.