As M-KAE celebrates another birthday, we sat down with founder Maria to reflect on the past year — the lessons, the progress, and the small moments that have shaped the journey. For Maria, this year feels different. Not because everything has been easy, but because the brand has reached a new level of maturity.

Below, she shares her thoughts on growth, creativity, and the inspiration behind this year’s birthday drop.

I actually feel very proud when I look back at the past year. When you’re in the middle of running a brand, it can sometimes feel like you’re just constantly moving forward without stopping to reflect. But when I compare where we are now to where we were last year, it’s clear that we’ve moved a lot.

We’ve grown — not just in size, but in the way we work and think about the brand.

One of the biggest changes is that we’ve become much better at planning. Earlier on, things often felt a bit last minute — which is probably very normal when you’re building something from the ground up.

Now we’re much more structured when it comes to our collections and production timelines. That means we can make decisions more thoughtfully and avoid that constant feeling of rushing everything at the end.

It has given us a much stronger foundation to build on.

Yes — we created a small birthday drop to celebrate the occasion. The inspiration actually came from a very personal place: my three daughters.

Watching them every day is such a reminder of playfulness, curiosity, and creativity. They see the world in such a free and imaginative way, and that feeling really inspired this drop.

It’s soft, joyful, and a little bit nostalgic — pieces that feel lighthearted but still very much part of the M-KAE universe.

I would say it’s the year where everything started to fall into place. We’ve built a stronger structure behind the scenes, and that gives us the freedom to focus even more on creativity going forward.

And that feels incredibly exciting for what’s ahead.