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PROFILE

Interview with Maya Hansen.

Maya Carbajal Alex-Hansen, better known as Maya Hansen is the alma mater of the brand that carries her name. After graduating with distinction in design from the Centro Superior de Diseño de Moda de Madrid, and working with Spanish designer Javier Larrainzar, she created her own brand in 2004, becoming Spain’s new corsetière.

The Maya Hansen brand is an original project which specialises in the bustier, bringing back the corset as an outer garment, as it was at the end of the 18th century. Her collections include fetish garments like corset dresses, skirts, capelets, mini hats, knickerbockers and overskirts which target an attractive, elegant, sophisticated woman with plenty of character.

The corsets are made in fabrics like printed cotton, toile, brocade with braid and trimming and include several different lines: Black (named after the main colour used), Funny (bright prints), Couture (more sumptuous couture fabrics) and Bridal (for rather special brides).

Over several years (2006-2009), Hansen’s bustiers were on show at Europe’s top Gothic festival, Wave Gothik Treffen and she was asked to design the wardrobe for the American tour of violinist Erika Nockhalls. In April 2007, she featured on the cover of international magazine Elegy. In 2007 and 2008, she went global, distributing her products from specialist shops in the UK, France, Netherlands, Germany and Lithuania, and just one year later, in 2009, made her US and Japanese debuts. Maya’s clothes are the choice of leading celebrities, and in May 2011, Lady Gaga presented her latest work on American television dressed in a total look from the ‘Queens of Spain’ collection, which caught on like wildfire around the world.

Hansen has won a number of fashion and design awards and has appeared on leading Spanish catwalks including Gaudí in Barcelona, Valencia Fashion Week and Cibeles Fashion Week in Madrid, where she won the L’Oréal prize for best collection in September 2010 for ‘Lace Wings’. Her spring/summer 2012 collection, ‘Knotted’ marked her debut at Cibeles Madrid Fashion Week, where she rounded off her show with a jewel-corset made in partnership with Swarovski.