About us
Maakola
All clothing comes from someone, somewhere, and will have an impact at every step of its lifespan.
Maakola is based on a deep understanding that all things are interconnected. Building a sustainable future relies on the human ability to make choices that honor those connections, to others and the planet.
Maakola designs fashion experiences for a future where clothing can be a regenerative action and contribute to a net positive world.
Our Creative Director
Aurora Chiste is an interdisciplinary designer, entrepreneur, and pioneer of regenerative fashion. Sitting at the crossroads of art, sustainability, and technology, Aurora’s work reimagines fashion as a force for good – one that can empower and regenerate society, culture, and the environment.
Aurora uses fabrics and technology to create garments that challenge our perceptions of beauty, collectivity and consumption. From wax print Ghanaian gowns to the tailoring worn by an American presidential candidate and gender-neutral biodegradable T-shirts, Aurora pushes the boundaries of how fashion shapes identity and culture, as well as the economy.
By proposing the possibility of phygital and regenerative fashion, Aurora invites her customers to imagine the collective power of fashion to both display and take action. She confronts this by moving beyond the integration of fabrics and stories, leveraging the power of Web3 to explore the spaces where physical meets digital, and creating an integrated dance of fashion, self-expression and sustainability.
Sustainable Luxury.
We are building our fashion brand as an active contributor towards the creation of resilient societies. Not only to promote environmentally conscious choices; but also to instil a strong culture of caring – We believe that manufacturing is not the only way for fashion to exist.
True beauty does not rely solely on the production of new fashion trends. As it is often common place that the majority of these ranges will never leave the shelves; the time and energy of the tailors, as well as the pieces themselves, just become waste – We want you to buy pieces only when you need them.
Our journey together begins where we only produce the garments that you really want. Ultimately, we ensure a perfectly tailored fit that you will absolutely love enough to take the best care of them. We work hard to make sure that your garment can be enjoyed many times over, keeping their footprints gentle.
We share in the experience with you – from beginning to end – transparency is at the heart of what we do.
We invite you to become a part of a different future, one that is inclusive, and respectful towards both humanity and nature – one that drives our collective evolution towards conscious beauty.
We are here to change how fashion works – Maakola is sustainable luxury.
Our pieces are produced in limited batches only, to ensure respectful and optimal use of all our resources. We love working directly with you, as this enables us to achieve the perfect fit and look that will best suit you. Ultimately, it is our wish to forge long lasting relationships with each of our clients well into the future.
Our team is a collective of highly skilled and talented traditional artisans. Based in Ghana and Italy, our tailors handcraft and co-create alongside us during the process; to refine each piece as it evolves from sketch to reality.
All of our garments are made with natural fiber fabrics: Cotton, Silk, Wool or Tencel, and our designs often feature African prints and indigenous African fabrics – well known for their vivid colors, supreme quality, and luxurious feel.
We invite you to actively participate in the co-creation of your piece. From the moment our tailors take your measurements, to deciding on your perfect style – each of your garments are designed to be your own beautiful self-expression, your own conscious form of art.
Each piece is lovingly handmade to last a lifetime. We invite you to join our Wear Me 30 Times initiative, inspired by Livia Firth.
Our company culture is one of inclusivity throughout our hiring practices, imagery, content and the stories we tell. We stand firm against all types of discrimination – our policies are tailored to prevent any instances, and in the case that one might arise, we will take instant measures to correct any misconduct in this regard.
Beautiful Business Needs a Beautiful Framework
Maakola has been built and tailored on the principals of The Collective Evolution Framework. The framework ensures that while we run our business, everyone thrives.
The spirit of collectivity and activism are the cornerstones of Maakola, we believe that creating change can only come from transforming the collective consciousness as a whole. We want to evoke systematic change, beginning within the fashion industry – ultimately, impacting every sector and aspect touched by the value chain thereafter.
‘True beauty is created by expanding conscious values.’
Conscious Beauty
We wanted a system that would allow us to create prosperity – not only for Maakola, but also for our suppliers, artisans and customers.
We believe that prosperity is a co-creation process, where we all share in the journey. This is why we created Conscious Beauty, the platform that provides tangible tools to create beauty together.
We create timeless garments that transcend their shape, they embed hundreds of women’s voices, and are like living organisms kept alive by everyone who touches them, from the designer and tailors to consumers.
At the heart of each garment, is a commitment to shape beauty through the values that make us feel good. They last for years and their richness lies in the materials, stories, and the contributions of the wearer.
Imbued with care, and a very particular understated luxury, we design to make women empowered and choose their position in the world.
Driven by a Culture of Care
When you look at something as a whole, you can start to create a culture of care.
When we buy something – hold it in our hand, use it, or wear it – we get to experience how that object relates to us as individuals, and how it impacts our own lives. But how can we develop our perspective so that we can see how that object relates to other beings, or impacts the future of our planet?
If we have a way of understanding how we are inter-related, and directly connected to the whole, we can start to develop an awareness of how our individual actions affect others.
By starting to develop a culture of caring that helps to accept beauty, as well as grief – we can take the first step towards building new languages, stories, symbols, and relationships between our existence and other beings.
We believe that clothing is more than just the sum of its parts. When you buy a piece of clothing, it connects you to the people – perhaps thousands of miles away – who designed and made it; and to the people whose stories inspired the very fabric that it is made from. What you wear creates a space bigger than its own origins.
By developing a culture of care, and respecting both our environment and every single person along the value chain, we can imbue our clothing with values that go beyond self-interest: sustainability, social justice, and women’s empowerment. It then works as a catalyst that shapes our individual behaviors, and eventually touches threads bigger than our own lives.
The Metaverse
Sustainability to Dematerialization and Beyond
One of our center drivers, is for us to carefully create what fashion can evoke, attract, link and help us pursue through our dreams and aspirations – through our clothing. Fashion is a universal language that mediates the relationships between us and others.
We want to enhance this language by making our processes as powerful as possible, by amplifying our sense of individuality, sophistication, and purpose through our designs. Fashion should be a more integrated system with the digital world.
We are now further exploring the interconnection between digital closets and the Metaverse, in order to give our garments the same properties that make communities thrive － self expression, connection, and active engagement.
As the rising of the Metaverse begins to show, we will probably value our digital assets more than the physical. This avenue holds a great opportunity to extend towards fashion the same properties that digitization has brought to social interactions －reach, inclusion, and democratization.
