Arianna Ajtar

Ajtar was born and raised in Bolton, Greater Manchester. As a child she wanted to be an actress and went to theatre school. While studying at university she noticed a huge gap in the market for clothing brands that truly understood a woman’s body, and found that the clothes she bought did not make her feel good, so she began designing the looks she could not find, pieces that contoured the body and made women feel confident.⁠[1][1][1]

In 2016, Ajtar founded Mars The Label in her family home (another source dates the start to 2015), initially designing in her father’s garage. She set out to close a gap in the affordable luxury womenswear market, with early designs offering a more premium product at a price that felt achievable for her, her friends, and her following.⁠[2][1][3][4]

On the show she said she started with about £3,000, part of it from student loans, spending about £200 on the website and about £1,000 on stock; she was then at university in Liverpool, working at a perfume shop and a jewellery shop at the same time and going to auditions, and after less than two months she was sacked from one job, quit the other, and took Mars on full time.⁠[5][5][5][5][5][5]

In 2024, Mars The Label showed at Miami Swim Week for the first time. Ajtar said this was the moment she felt the brand had made it: her team flew out and watched many of the models who had inspired her walk in Mars. As of August 2026, the brand had shown at Miami Swim Week twice.⁠[3][1][1][4]

Ajtar has said the biggest challenge since launch was keeping up with demand: early on, restock sign-ups for some items reached 40 times the quantity ordered. In February 2025 the company carried out an internal re-strategy to accommodate demand while keeping pieces somewhat limited, and it has since committed to releasing capsule collections. In May 2025 the brand began its first DTC partnership with the retailer Flannels, later launching more Flannels-exclusive products.⁠[1][1][1][4][1]

On January 12, 2026, The Venture Room published a street interview filmed in Manchester, in which Ajtar appears at 05:55 in the video. She said she runs Mars The Label and that the business’s best year had reached eight figures in revenue. She described starting with about £3,000 while studying and working, and shared how she would start a business from scratch, the opportunity she sees in wellness spaces specifically for women, and how rich people use money as a tool.⁠[5][5][5][5][5]

In 2026, Mars The Label celebrated its tenth anniversary. In a February 2026 interview, Ajtar said the UK was still the brand’s biggest market but the gap with the US was closing every month; she credited the brand’s growth to its customer community, the “Mars Girls”, whose feedback on colourways, lengths, and fit the team uses to refine its designs. She also said the product development team was meeting retailers to explore more DTC opportunities and that the brand planned a US catwalk at Miami Swim Week.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

In August 2026, Mars The Label opened its first US distribution centre, in Ohio, the brand’s first physical footprint outside the UK, offering customers across the mainland US the same next-day delivery as in the UK, express options for Alaska and Hawaii, and fulfilment of US sell-outs from its UK warehouse. By then the brand had grown into an eight-figure, female-run business with a celebrity following including Khloé Kardashian, Dua Lipa, and Megan Thee Stallion. Ajtar said the US had always been a key part of the business and offering US customers next-day delivery was a natural progression.⁠[2][2][2][2][2][2][2][2]

Ajtar was a finalist in the everywoman Entrepreneur Awards. Through Mars The Label she offers a wide range of products, from swimwear and dresses to loungewear and accessories, aiming to redefine confidence for women of all shapes and sizes.⁠[3][3]

“First of all, find something that you are obsessed with or love. Then research the best of the best in that industry and seek out what they’re not doing rather than what they are, and provide that to the market.” She believes this immediately gives you a sellable product (at 07:03 in the video).⁠[5][5]

“Rich people use money as a tool and not an end goal.” She says successful people often use money to buy time and freedom, create assets, or hire people to grow their business, whereas many others give their time for money because money is the end goal (at 07:48 in the video).⁠[5][5][5]

“Embarrassment is an unexplored emotion. Go out and make a fool of yourself.” She recalls many times she held back from asking questions, entering certain rooms, or having certain conversations out of fear of embarrassment, including sitting in rooms with billionaires without daring to ask how they got there, an opportunity lost that she will never get back (at 08:11 in the video).⁠[5][5][5]

Mars The Label: Official website: https://marsthelabel.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[6]