How Maiyet Mixes Ethics And Luxury

Founded in 2010, this lux New York fashion brand is paving the way for ethical luxury. Maiyet partners with talented artisans from every corner of our earth to create their culturally conscious clothing.

Paul van Zyl and Kristy Caylor are the visionaries behind Maiyet. Zyl also lives as a South African lawyer and post-apartheid reconciliation figure, while Caylor is a Californian humanitarian. They are sharing their passion through fashion, a platform that has the potential to reach people worldwide.

Maiyet has now created relationships with artisans in countries like India, Kenya, Mongolia and Peru. They have been showcasing this unique craftsmanship on runways in Paris since 2011, and made their New York debut at this years spring/summer 2016 fashion week.

Their NYC debut revealed the luxury brand’s new creative director. Declan Kearny, who was formerly design director at Alexander Wang and Jason Wu, is now filling the coveted position at Maiyet. His first collection with the line showed at fashion week and was very well received.

“We reach out to the world for inspiration but we bring it back to New York when we curate it and make sense of it,” Kearney explained to Dunya News.

“We put it together in a way that speaks to a modern woman. We have little touches of, maybe a few more Parisian elements in our embroidered shapes, but it feels like a New York girl,” he said.

Kearney continued to note the brand’s “amazing partners in Bolivia, Mongolia and India, and Kenya. We work with a lot of really great artisans.”

“I think I see New York with a foreigner’s eyes,” he said. “I live in Queens, it ‘ a very diverse center of the world – it’s very representative of the world at large.”

Maiyet continues to break the boundaries between ethical clothing and luxury branding. With Kearney on board, there is no telling how far they can take the world’s fashion under the Maiyet brand.

Find out a little more about the Maiyet philosophy here: