“It’s hard to believe it’s been twenty years. When I started aiayu back in 2005, it wasn’t part of some grandplan. It came from a feeling. A need to slow down, to create something that felt real. I had spent years in fashion, but I wanted to work with my hands again, to feel the raw beauty of natural materials, and to be closer to the people who know them by heart. I found that in Bolivia — with the llamas, the yarns, the women who welcomed me in and shared their craft so generously. That was the beginning. Everything since has grown from there, one step at a time. Quietly. In our own way.”

“Now, two decades later, we’ve collected more than memories. In our studio, there’s a shelf filled with little things we've gathered along the way. They’re not fancy—just bits and pieces that mean something to us. A hand-made candle holder. A worn sewing tape. A Bolivian pom-pom. Horn buttons. They tell our story in a way words can’t. So to mark this anniversary, we picked twenty of those objects—one for each year. Not because they’re perfect, but because they remind us who we are. What we believe in. How far we've come, and why we started in the first place.

This is our way of saying thank you—for being part of it.

With love – Maria Høgh Heilmann, Founder and Creative Director”

The journey began in 2005, after years immersed in the fashion industry, when Founder and Creative Director Maria Høgh Heilmann felt a heartfelt longing to take a different path—one that diverged from the conventional pace and practices of the industry at the time. She wanted a slower pace and to get closer to the origin of natural materials—sourced from around the world, grown and raised in their indigenous environments, and crafted into collections by the people who know these materials best—preserving cultures and traditions.

Guided by her deep love for knitwear and the traditional craftsmanship behind it, Maria joined forces with the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and a visionary local yarn manufacturer in Bolivia to establish the country’s first knitwear factory.* Bolivia has since become a blueprint for aiayu’s production model, facilitating responsible and thoughtful sourcing and production in India, Mongolia, Nepal, and Europe.

In 2006, the Helen clutch was born from one of the brand's female Bolivian artisans’ traditional hand-knitting techniques — a piece that would go on to become a beloved aiayu statement. 

In 2011, Maria Glæsel joined as CEO, sharing founder Maria Høgh Heilmann’s passion for craftsmanship and natural materials, along with a vision to prove that a viable business model and responsible practices can go hand in hand.

By 2013, aiayu introduced organic cotton into its collection through a strong partnership with a certified production facility in India. The Shirt, born from this collaboration, remains one of aiayu’s signature pieces to this day. That same year, responsibility — a cornerstone since our founding — took further shape with the introduction of our repair service, created to help customers extend the life of their favourite pieces, in line with aiayu’s philosophy of durability and longevity.

In 2014, the knitwear collection grew to include the finest cashmere from aiayu’s partner in Nepal—giving rise to enduring favourites like Madigan, and later on signature Leonardo. The same year, aiayu’s organic cotton poplin—first introduced for the Shirt—felt so dreamy, we wanted to sleep in it. That feeling inspired the brand to design aiayu’s sleep collection as a natural extension of its existing homeware universe.

2017 marked a milestone as the brand opened its first flagship store in Store Strandstræde, Copenhagen—offering a tactile space where our community could experience aiayu's universe and come closer to the stories behind the materials and artisans. In the following years, aiayu expanded with three additional stores: two in Copenhagen, located in Frederiksberg and Østerbro, and one in Aarhus.

In 2022, aiayu launched outerwear, crafted in Europe by expert makers with a long-standing tradition of developing weatherproof materials of the highest quality.

And in 2024, the brand moved into our new headquarters in Østerbro, Copenhagen—a historic and calm space that reflects who aiayu are today, and where the core values are reflected in all details across the business.

At aiayu, they believe everything happens when the time is right. Looking ahead, an international presence is next—but as always, in the aiayu way, without compromising what the brand has built.

This year marks aiayu’s 20-year anniversary, ‘twenty times around the sun’—and the brand's show debut on Copenhagen Fashion Week, since its first chapter in Bolivia. Truly a celebration of the decades that shaped aiayu.