Vladimir Teriokhin
Astound Knit
Vladimir Teriokhin, the owner of Astound Knit, and a Bolshoi-trained ballet soloist, emigrated to New York in 1989. While a student at the Bolshoi, Vladimir had learned about knitting, sewing, and embroidery in his History of Theatrical Costumes classes and had created knit costumes for productions ofThe Firebird and MacBeth. As a result, when he came to New York, he was able to find work as a freelancer, creating knitwear collections for top designers including Donna Karan, Oscar de la Renta, Isaac Mizrahi, Prabal Gurung, Carolina Herrera and Helmut Lang.
In 1993 he decided to start his own company, Vlad Knit Wear, now known as Astound Knit. Growing his company with the help of loans from Accompany Capital – and his unique talent – he produced knit collections for top designers like Ralph Lauren in addition to selling directly through his website.
When many of the design houses he worked with closed at the beginning of the pandemic, Vlad quickly moved to a home-based model, continuing to employ his local knitters to produce orders for his private clients. He was also able to benefit from Accompany Capital’s Emergency Loan Fund to complete fall collections for Vera Wang, Pauline Dupre, and Julia Javits.
Additional support from Accompany Capital help bring Astound Knit back to capacity post-pandemic; funds were used to purchase supplies and hire New York-based artisans, including recent Ukrainian and Russian refugees.