From Fashion to Fabrication

After graduating with a BFA in Fashion Design from Syracuse University, Caitriona Fiero spent the next seven years as a designer and merchandiser in Manhattan. Feeling unfulfilled and struggling to imagine another seven years in the fashion industry, she sought a career change… but to what? To her amazement, she discovered that craftspeople were still making furniture by hand in shops dotted (and seemingly hidden) around New York City. She felt as if struck by lightning. Caitriona began apprenticing with different shops in Brooklyn; assisting finishers, carpenters, cabinetmakers, and eventually landing at a fabrication shop in Queens.

Back to School

Caitriona was grateful for this shop education, but recognized that it was spotty. In pursuit of a more formal education, she attended the Center for Furniture Craftmanship in Rockport, Maine, and graduated with the class of 2018-19. After school, she landed a job with a cabinetshop in Freeport, Maine, and decided to remain in New England rather than return to her home state of New York. She spent the next two years building and assembling kitchens and constructing and renovating homes up and down coastal Maine.

Starting her own Business

After six years of woodworking, both in shops and on construction sites, Caitriona decided it was time to strike out on her own, and subsequently founded Fiero Woodworking, LLC. Fiero Woodworking allows her to take on work that combines her finer skills as a craftswoman and her broader skills as a carpenter. It grants her long-awaited independence and control over her work and career. She’s finally discovered a deep fulfillment that she could not find in the fashion industry, and at its core lies a happiness that comes from making things to be loved and well used, and imparting something of herself in the making.