Kiori Studio
Maisie:
“I feel like PVF has elevated us to a whole new level.”
About
Kiori Studio is a Haringey-based, women led Fashion and Art Design Space specialising in garments, accessories, art and furniture design. The Kiori team consists of qualified designers with over 10 years of experience in the field. The extensive members of the group are equipped with a broad spectrum of skills, with educational backgrounds from prestigious Universities such as Central Saint Martins and London College of Fashion – Cordwainers.
Kiori Studio’s Creative Director, Maritta Nemsadze, was raised by her great grandmother in Tbilisi, Georgia. She watched her continuously knit and over time Maritta developed an interest and soon fell in love for knitting, crochet and handcraft. By the age of 8 Maritta was already constructing fully fashioned garments.
We caught up with Maritta and Studio Manager Maisie to share their story about using the Productive Valley Fund.
With the support from the Productive Valley Fund (PVF), they are continuing to build upon their success by purchasing new machinery and hiring more staff. This means they will now be able to take on more clients and to produce their products faster.
How did you find out about the Productive Valley Fund? And what was the process like working with the Productive Valley Fund and Council representatives?
Maritta: “Kumar (Haringey Council Productive Valley Fund Officer) reached out to us, and he was incredibly helpful. He was completely supportive and was with us from the start to end. This was like a whole brand-new world for us as we had never completed anything like this before. Kumar kindly guided us, and the end result was a success.”
How has the Productive Valley Fund helped Kiori Studio?
Maisie: “With the PVF loan we have purchased new machinery and hired more staff. We were also able to reach out to clients that had contacted us in the past and tell them that we were now able to fulfil their jobs as we now had enough staff and newer machinery to get the job done. Also, we are now able to tell our existing clients that we have grown and can now take on more. I feel like PVF has elevated us to a whole new level.”
What is next for Kiori Studio?
Maritta: “We want to keep expanding, purchasing more machinery, studio space and hiring more staff. We would love to have at least 50 people working for us.”
What has been a highlight of using the Productive Valley Fund?
Maisie: “Well, we went from the company being just Maritta to then adding myself, and now we are a team of many. I would say that is one of the nicest things to come from having the PVF.”
Maritta: “It all happened so fast; the moment we installed the new machinery we were then able to hire straight away.”
