Aiayu
Copenhagen fashion and textile house making wardrobe and home pieces from natural, often undyed fibres, worked by artisans in Bolivia, Nepal, India and Europe.
- Founded
- 2005
- Founded by
- Maria Høgh Heilmann
- Based in
- Copenhagen, Denmark
Pictures © Aiayu, from aiayu.com.
Why it is renowned
aiayu makes wardrobe and home pieces from natural fibres, worked by artisans in Bolivia, Nepal, India and Europe.1 It showed its first runway collection, for spring/summer 2026, at Copenhagen Fashion Week to mark its twentieth year, and Vogue Scandinavia reviewed it.2 Vogue carries its Copenhagen collections from spring 2026 to spring 2027 on its runway pages.3
The story
aiayu began in Bolivia in 2005, when its founder Maria Høgh Heilmann met a local yarn maker.1 The name means 'soul' in Aymara, the language of Bolivia's indigenous people, and was suggested by a Bolivian hand knitter.1 Høgh Heilmann is its creative director and Maria Glæsel its CEO; the collections are designed and the business is run from Copenhagen.1 Its headquarters sits in a former post and telegraph building at Indiakaj 2 in Copenhagen, built in 1917 and restored in 2024.1 For its 20-year anniversary it staged its first runway show, at the Nils Stærk gallery in Copenhagen during Copenhagen Fashion Week.2
Works
What to know it by
Sources
- About. aiayu.com, read 30 September 2026.
- Copenhagen Fashion Week: This is AIAYU spring/summer 2026 collection. voguescandinavia.com, read 30 September 2026.
- Aiayu News, Collections, Fashion Shows, Fashion Week Reviews, and More, Vogue. vogue.com, read 30 September 2026.
- aiayu | official online store. aiayu.com, read 30 September 2026.
Last checked 30 September 2026, against the maker's own pages.