My grandmother called me Maaza.

In Amharic, it means scent. Something you can’t hold in your hands, can’t point to in a room — but once you’ve known it, you never forget it. That’s what she was to me. That’s what I wanted this brand to be.

My name is Rina. I’m a graphic designer and illustrator based in Israel, with roots in Ethiopia. I grew up between two worlds — and for a long time, I kept them separate. MAAZA is what happens when I stop doing that.

Every design starts with a pattern — geometric forms drawn from African visual tradition, from symbols that have meant something for centuries. Then I push them forward. Into color, into structure, into something that feels as much about the future as it does about the past. That tension is Afrofuturism. That tension is MAAZA.

The first collection is three pairs of socks. Each one is named in Amharic — Mishet (evening), Lelit (night), Sar (grass). Each one is produced locally in small batches, with Egyptian cotton, with care. Not because it’s cheaper — it isn’t — but because the object has to be worth carrying.

I make things for people who wear their identity with pride. For those who know that what you put on your body is never just fabric — it’s a statement, a memory, a small act of defiance or love or both.

This is just the beginning.