FOUNDING OBJECTIVES

Māya promotes environmental sustainability. As the sustainable textile line of Studio Lizane Louw, we we follow the studio motto “Designed to make a difference”. All of our products and prints are designed to have minimum environmental impact.

In our print atelier, we prioritise eco-friendly, sustainable natural materials and support suppliers with sustainable production processes. With our products, we want to encourage and promote minimal waste across our supply chains.

We focus on preserving and promoting heritage textile crafts.

We focus our projects on collaboration with artisans and communities; we aim to share our experiences with local textile products from lesser-known communities. We want to encourage others to support our projects and help us revive and sustain traditional textile techniques. We believe preserving heritage textile crafts is essential for future generations. We want to teach the wider community to buy better.

We aim to empower artisan communities with our visual and design projects.

We build fair, transparent partnerships with artisan communities. We support these artists by working with suppliers that provide fair wages and safe, secure working conditions, and we also encourage opportunities for skill development and education. We focus on women’s empowerment and want to identify women-owned businesses to work with; we will focus on small businesses.

We support women-led businesses and makers.

Where possible, Māya works with women-owned small businesses, independent makers and artisan enterprises, supporting fair pay, safe working conditions and sustainable livelihoods.

We support ethical practices.

We require all partners to follow ethical sourcing and production standards, from farm to shelf. We believe in transparency. We promote the artisans we work with and share our personal experiences.

We want to foster cultural exchange.

We want to celebrate the diverse and colourful cultural heritage of textile crafts found worldwide. We aim to promote an appreciation for traditional craftsmanship, especially crafts seen as dying or facing the threat of “extinction”.

Māya is an eco-friendly, sustainable textile brand.

In the future, we want to support research into innovative sustainable materials, print processes, and technologies that reduce the environmental impact of textiles. We hope to develop new ideas and ways of thinking, creating, and working while maintaining the integrity and tradition of the heritage textile crafts we work with. We experiment a lot in our textile atelier.

Education is the foundation for our brand. With education comes awareness.

We want to engage consumers and stakeholders with our stories and our products. We aim to educate the broader community by raising awareness about the importance of sustainable textiles and heritage textile preservation. We know people love print crafts, and we aim to make them accessible to the communities we live and work in. We share our stories and innovative techniques in our Block Print Berlin Workshops and atelier experiences

We build through collaboration.

We want to collaborate with like-minded creatives, artists, businesses, and initiatives to share knowledge and work together toward a more sustainable future for the textile industry.

Maya can catalyse positive change.

We want to demonstrate that sustainability and heritage preservation can go hand in hand with small business success and product innovation. We will follow our sustainability goals and founding objectives and seek opportunities to develop and expand our product line with innovation and adaptation. We always choose nature first in all our projects and product developments.

Designed to make a difference.