Nichola

Nichola Te Kiri – Tūhoe

Creative extraordinaire, entrepreneur and founder/owner of Nichola – Contemporary Māori Designs from Aotearoa, Nichola Te Kiri has fast established a reputation for herself as an outstanding talent throughout New Zealand and beyond.

Passionate about all facets of design, she expresses her exceptional gift and skill in jewellery, fashion, mixed media and bespoke items, each one of which is distinctively Nichola. Her original, innovative and contemporary designs, artworks and solutions are driven by Te Ao Māori with splashes of Aotearoa flavours.

Te Kiri has studied whakairo (carving), contemporary Māori arts and raranga (weaving) at Te Wananga o Aotearoa. Other complementary tohu she has acquired are in the fields of management and art and design, gaining a Bachelor of Spatial Design and Diploma in Event Management from the Auckland University of Technology.

Nichola Te Kiri incorporates Māori symbols and stories into the designs of her Nichola capes, jewellery and lamps.

After living in Australia for six years with a plan to eventually head to New York and work with three-dimensional art and installations, Nichola’s path changed and she moved back to the Waikato and worked on design projects for Kirikiriroa Marae and Te Kohao Health.

All Nichola products are made at her home with help from close friends and sold online and through a custom-built mobile shop in Hamilton.

Nichola’s apparel collection was displayed at New Zealand Fashion Week last year, M+H (Mahuika + Hinepukohurangi) and was her avant-garde collection debut as part of the Miromoda show, alongside other talented Maori designers.

She’s conscious of keeping her product range fresh so the business doesn’t ‘flat-line’ and says it’s important to listen to what customers like and don’t like.

Te Kiri is poised to scale up the Nichola brand to significant success.