Eco Fashion World

Conceived by Hong Kong-born now Brooklyn-based designer Beryl Man, ajna collections deliver a message of interconnectedness to the world of high fashion. From a young age, Man enrolled in drawing classes and had an innate interest in art history, travel, museums, and the intrinsic nature of other cultures. These elements later became the foundation for her career in fashion.

Man’s work led her to New York where she gained over 15 years of fashion development experience including tenures working with well known fashion designers Donna Karan, Calvin Klein and Hussein Chalayan. During this time, Man traveled to factories and chose to adopt an awareness focused on the people who were working in the factories and the conditions and hours they were subjected to. She carefully reflected on the state of the world and the ways in which modernization has adversely affected our ecosystem, and then imagined a return to ancestral wisdom as a means to resolve and adapt to modern day problems.

With a profound lifelong belief in the possibility of harmony and balance among all living things, Man decided to venture out and create a brand that would convey this way of thinking. She introduced ajna to the world in 2008. Ajna means “the third eye of the chakra” or “the mind’s eye,” representing something more profound than what our eyes see in front of us. The collections are meant to inspire a holistic approach to fashion and ultimately, a more philosophical approach to life.

Through ajna, Man aims to provoke questions like “why do we exist?” and “how are we connected to other people through the clothing that we wear?” She hopes that this will in turn move us to look deeper and further establish a connection with everything that surrounds us. The collections are inspired by natural landscapes. Textures, layers, draping, geometrical and asymmetrical cuts, and a combination of different knitting techniques are used to mimic images of nature such as the Banaue Rice Terraces in the Philippines which inspired the Spring 2010 Collection.

The garments are produced of materials such as organic cotton, hemp silk, vegan wild ahimsa silk, biodegradable viscose, sasawashi (bamboo leaves & paper), piña (pineapple), abaca (banana leaf), organic wool, himalayan cashmere and indigenous alpaca, and crafted by indigenous textile artisans in Peru, Nepal, Bolivia, Uruguay and India as well as locally in New York. Man supports fair trade practices and only uses vendors who follow code of conduct guidelines of labor law, run sweatshop-free production facilities and openly document fair pay to workers.

Beyond the homage to life, ajna collections embody an elegant wear-ability. Soft flowing dress silhouettes, long luxurious cardigans, sexy skirts and sleeveless tops with overlapping or wrapped materials make each item authentically unique. With a look toward the future, Beryl Man seeks to take ajna into other markets in line with their holistic business model, such as the spa, retreat and yoga industries. This is another way to reach a variation of consumers, not limiting ajna’s potential to any single market.

In an industry where many tend to steer all their gusto toward the bottom line, neglecting to see the detriment to the environment their choices may force and sometimes losing sight of their original inspiration, ajna does not sway from its heart swelling reverence for Mother Earth and all her inhabitants. Instead, ajna pushes forward delicately, toward a world where everyone realizes we are all interwoven and interconnected.

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