About the Designer
At an early age, Astrid knew what kind of clothes she liked.

When she got something new, she would rip it apart at the seams and recreate it to suit her own specifications. Creativity ran in Astrid's family. Her grandfather designed the contents of the hope chest for one of the czars of Russia. Niemelaeinen's father's family owned a clothing store in Helsinki, Finland.

Astrid was trained in Vienna where she learned to transfer a pattern to fabric by the narrow stitch-and-loop method. Far different from the modern way of tracing a paper pattern onto fabric and then cutting.

In addition of working in Vienna, she also worked in clothing design in Milan, Italy. She has traveled the world, adorning women around the globe. She has moved 37 times and speaks seven languages.