Keti Lagvilava

Teaches at Denver Design Incubator

Keti's original career was as a geophysicist, but she always had a love of fashion and sewing since she was a little girl growing up in Tbilisi, Georgia.  She immigrated to New York City in the early 90's and soon began selling her designs to local boutiques in the Forest Hills neighborhood of the city.  She then established herself as a professional custom clothier while completing her fashion degree at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology.  She worked as a patternmaker, fit model, designer and technical design manager for a wide range of companies including Federated, Tommy Hilfiger, Anne Klein, Tahari and Joe Fresh.  She frequently traveled to overseas factories to train representatives in craftsmanship and garment construction as well as to troubleshoot production problems.  

She moved to Denver, Colorado with her fiancée in summer of 2015 for a change of pace and enjoy what Colorado has to offer. In Denver, she established her own business: Ketivani. She designs and produces upscale clothing for specialty stores and
offers classes in sketching, draping and patternmaking at her office and also at Denver Design Incubator (DDI). Most recently, Keti collaborated with Terri Garbarini to design and produce skirts and dresses, which are successfully selling at the Garbarini store in Cherry Creek. 

Keti is considered one of the industry’s unique talents. Not only can she draw beautiful fashion sketches, but she also brings a wealth of technical construction knowledge and industry expertise to transform such illustrations to finished products.  She has a deep knowledge of different body types and creates perfectly fitted, well-constructed and comfortable garments in range of high quality fabrics.