Ethical Fashion is the New Fashion

Since Katharina came to Guatemala the first time over 4 years ago, she felt the strong desire to support the local people that live in poverty here. She realized how lucky she is to be born in a country like Germany where she has so many opportunities in life and how unfair that is. Because so many people don’t have these opportunities. Diego, who grew up here and spend most of his life in Guatemala, always wanted to help his country develop. The idea of Mayalla arose, out of the desire to create opportunities for local people, incorporating the passion of Katharina for creativity and design and Diego’s love for his own country and heritage and to show the world the rich Guatemalan culture.

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Mayalla is built up on the idea to support the local people of Guatemala and to create opportunities for them. To create stable work for the parents and to enable that their children can go to school. At the moment we support the Guatemalan community with purchasing their beautiful handmade textiles also called “huipils” for fair prices from the weavers on the local markets. It is very important to us that the they are paid fairly for their hard work. That’s why the artisans themselves set their price. Mayalla also provides work for the local leather craftsmen that create the bags and accessories.

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Transparency is important to us. To our artisan partners as well as to our clients. Our weavers and craftsmen know for how much we sell our products and what their work is worth. We are not taking advantage of them or underpaying them! If you have any question about this process, please feel free to contact us.

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With the growth of Mayalla we plan to create long term work employment and workshops for the local community.  In which we want to make the parents aware of how important education and the right nutrition is for their children. Both are up to this point still huge problems in many small villages in Guatemala.

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Our aim is to do something good for the people here and to make the world aware about the new “Slow Fashion Movement”. Mayalla wants to change the way people buy. We believe that the mindset of many consumers changed over the last years already and that many people from developed countries are more conscious of where they shop from. They want to make a positive impact in the world, they care about the people who create their products and are seeking an alternative to factory-made designs that all look the same. They seek something special and unique.

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We are giving you - the consumer - the opportunity to show social responsibility without starting a nonprofit organization or ethical business, maybe you don’t have the time to do that. But you can control which businesses you support with your money and where you shop! You can show your support by shopping in Ethical Stores like Mayalla or other stores that follow this business model. Together we are strong and can make a difference!

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We seek to preserve the ancient indigenous culture of Guatemala and to create modern fashion styles that celebrate the cultural heritage of the Maya. We want to show the world the rich Guatemalan culture by sharing its indigenous handcrafted fabrics and traditions with the world. And explaining the meanings of their traditional textiles “huipils” and other ancient traditions. Many people have never heard of Guatemala, so we see it as our challenge to change that!

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Mayalla uses sustainable business practices. By Using upcycled Guatemalan garments that we source from the weaver’s market we chose not to overproduce textiles. Instead we are using textiles already made, which helps to avoid waste created by over production.

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