About Us
NAO is the time for a system change
I, Samira, founded NAO Studios in 2022 with the vision of changing and (co-)shaping the fashion industry. In cooperation with Mohammed Mukhtar and the tailor training project of his Eyes of Light Foundation, our joint project was born.
SAMIRA KULJURGIS
Founder NAO Studios
I have been working in the fashion industry for over 15 years. Both privately and professionally, I have experienced various processes and instruments (and their effects) for the production of fashion along the entire value chain. The fast fashion industry is booming and growing like never before. Ultra fast fashion is conquering the market.
It enables the increasingly frequent consumption of fashion at very low prices that bear no relation to the actual costs of the products, which are borne by the seamstresses, the producers and our planet. Greenwashing, a lack of transparency, concealment of facts - and companies appear to be sustainable without really doing anything for people and the environment. I not only question this construct, but would like to change it together with many other activists and visionaries and support and expand the slow fashion sector.
MOHAMMED MUKHTAR
Founder Eyes of Light Foundation, Ghana
In 2010, after one of his trips to his home town of Kumasi in Ghana, Mohammed decided that he could no longer stand idly by and watch the increasing misery and lack of prospects for the growing number of street children. So he founded the Eyes of Light Foundation.
The NGO has already built an orphanage and a school for orphans and street children.
In addition, 200 wells are to be built in villages without their own water supply (dry areas in the WA region) in order to combat the cause of the rural exodus of children.
The Eyes of Light Foundation's projects also include free vocational training in tailoring for destitute young women in Tafo (suburb of Kumasi). The training started in 2019 and, in collaboration with Eyes of Light and NAO Studios, we want to ensure that the training can continue in the future.
The Seamstresses
There is no large professional production facility behind NAO. Instead, the seamstresses of the training program of the Eyes of Light Foundation, Ghana, sew the majority of NAO products.
The young women are given a comprehensive insight into the fashion business with industrial sewing machines, different fabrics, qualities and fits. In cooperation with NAO Studios and the Eyes of Light Foundation, we want to strengthen creativity and commitment and open up a new world of possibilities for an independent and happy life.
The training program
Mohammed Mukhtar launched the training program in 2019 to give young, destitute women the opportunity to train as seamstresses free of charge. Hand sewing machines were purchased and the first small sewing workshop was opened.
In 2021, the cooperation with NAO Studios started. After a successful crowdfunding campaign in 2022, Mohammed and Samira traveled to Ghana in May 2022 and the first small collection was created together with the trainees.
