🎙️Voices #3 — Maya Persaud :When Fashion Becomes Impact

GWF Voices — Maya Persaud Co-founder & Director, ESPERO France

Maya Persaud was born in Austin, Texas, raised in Hawaii (Oahu), and now lives in Paris—where she co-founded ESPERO France and leads it as Director.

Her story has the kind of elegance Paris loves: a first life in fashion, a second in impact. Maya worked as a model between Paris, Milan, London, and New York.

Yet she never describes it as a dream. More like a door that opened and she walked through, curious, disciplined, and unafraid to reinvent herself when the time came.

What she carried from the beginning wasn’t glamour. It was an insistence on fairness.

A belief learned early: if you have more, you give back.

Before ESPERO, Maya deepened her understanding of the world through development work and a Master’s at SOAS (University of London) in the Social Anthropology of Development.

It left her with a question that still anchors everything she builds: what does “development” mean if it doesn’t lead to dignity, stability, and real autonomy?

A Paris atelier with a very different purpose

Founded in 2016, ESPERO France creates social and professional integration pathways, often for migrants and refugees, by linking employability to the ecological transition.

ESPERO works across three fields—upcycling sewing, permaculture, and urban agriculture—and in each, the method is the same: give people a real métier, and surround them with the support that makes work possible again (language, admin, confidence, the right rhythm). In July 2025, ESPERO presented a collection at the Musée d’Orsay, created with designer Joy Acevedo and made by a team of ESPERO artisans, using recycled or dormant materials—some sourced from major luxury houses. The partnership went beyond a simple venue: the museum’s own artisans collaborated on unique pieces as part of the collection.

It started small—three hives

ESPERO didn’t begin with sewing.

It began with beekeeping and urban agriculture—launched with just a few hives. Maya knew nothing about beekeeping at the start. But she believes in starting before you feel ready: one step, then another, learning in motion.

Over time, the project grew, and one participant built a livelihood around beekeeping—an outcome that became one of Maya’s anchors during difficult moments. When doubts came, she kept going because the work was not abstract: it changed someone’s daily life.

Then came the shift to couture—by listening

The pivot to fashion came from listening.

When Maya visited housing centers, she saw how sewing could become a portable skill—something you can carry anywhere in the world. She mobilized her network, found allies inside the industry, secured early support, and built the next version of the project with the same principle: start small, grow organically, and let reality guide the direction.

The part people don’t talk about: the “blockages”

Maya doesn’t romanticize integration.

She talks about blockages—the invisible walls that keep someone out of work even when they have talent: paperwork, trauma, language, isolation, self-doubt.

This focus aligns with ESPERO’s own emphasis on social-professional support alongside training.

For Maya, employability is not just a skill problem. It’s a re-entry into society.

What’s next

Today, her priority is sustainability—ensuring the women trained through the atelier can reliably live from their craft.

That means working on the economic model, commercial products, partnerships, and ways for the program to generate revenue while protecting its mission. Impact that lasts requires a structure that holds.

At the same time, she is preparing a new chapter: moving to Brazil, a country she calls her dream destination, to develop a project centered on children—especially street children—learning first through observation, then building something locally, step by step.

Maya’s advice

Her advice to women who want to enter fashion—or anyone who wants to become an entrepreneur—is direct:

There is no “perfect” choice.

The real risk is staying stuck in indecision.

Move.

Choose.

Start small.

Adjust as you learn.

Keep flowing—like water.