Mover & Maker

Meet Miranda Osborne, the creative mind, design visionary and business brain behind go-to Christchurch furniture brand Ico Traders.

- Sally Conor

What is your work background? My career has been a mixed bag. After only a year of art training, I decided to be an artist full time. I then took a job as a textile designer, designing textiles and helping to buy ranges of curtain fabric. This amazing opportunity allowed me to travel and gave me the skills to design textiles when I lived in London. Somewhere along the line, I switched from fabrics to clothing and spent several years working in the fashion industry, which in turn led me to buying and dealing more and more with overseas factories.

What was the inspiration behind Ico Traders? What made you take the leap and start your own business? The Christchurch earthquakes were the kicker for me. I was travelling overseas a lot (in fact, I had just landed in San Francisco when the first earthquake hit), I had two young daughters and my job and family life were pretty damned busy. The earthquakes made me re-evaluate what was most important – and that was my family.

I thought that if I was going to bust a gut, then it may as well be for myself, so I could build a career that fitted around family life. My goal was to find a good factory with a good understanding of design, and one I could build a really solid relationship with that worked for both parties. I am happy to say that, while it took a year or two, I have truly succeeded in this mission. The people at my factory are awesome; they are proactive in designing, patient with my changes and have become true friends.

When did you start Ico Traders and what were the greatest challenges you faced?

Ico has been going for seven years now and every day is still a challenge. Running a business on your own is a 24/7 job with all the responsibilities down to you. I’ve learned a lot about accounting and admin and freight-forwarding! I am daily grateful for the help of my colleague Bridgett who works for me part time.