"Lotus of Lapland: The Material & Spiritual Life of Ulla-Maija"  (working title) is the upcoming memoir of Ulla-Maija Kivimäki, an artist and creator, industrious immigrant, accomplished designer in the fashion industry, yogi, music producer, musician and tech guru. The book is a timely and revealing story of the life of a woman with big dreams. She grew up free, creative, independent, and adventurous in Lapland, Finland, the land of pristine nature and tranquility. After a decade of studies around the world, she settled in New York and, after many years of struggle, made it big in the treacherous world of international fashion and luxury, only to have everything she owned taken from her at the height of her success, including her livelihood, business, name and reputation. Broke, broken, and persecuted for opposing abuse, financial wrongdoing, and crime, and traumatized for lack of justice, she was forced on an intense outward and inward journey of transformation to learn to see from a bigger perspective, to find her higher Self, and to realize her role and the purpose of her life in a world that is changing at a great speed.

Contact for more information about the book.

Contact about USA publishing rights.

Contact about foreign publishing and translation rights.

The project seeks donations, sponsors, grants, and collaborators to get to the next level. Sponsors and donors will be thanked and recognized on the book, websites and other materials unless otherwise instructed by the donor/sponsor.

THE BOOK:  A Short Summary

​"Lotus of Lapland: 
The Material & Spiritual Life of Ulla-Maija" (working title)

The upcoming book of Ulla-Maija Kivimäki is a memoir colorfully exploring her life, times, struggles, success, destruction, and transformation, and her adventures around the world as an artist and creator, industrious immigrant, accomplished designer in the fashion industry, yogi, music producer, musician, and tech guru.

The book is a timely and revealing story of the life of a woman with big dreams. 
​
It follows her journey from Lapland, Finland, where she grew up close to nature, through worldwide urban centers of sophisticated life, and into spiritual communities of mystical attainment.  

A teen fashion model in the 70s, she constantly traveled the world for a decade, studied fashion, and quickly learned about the ways of the world as a member of the international jet set crowd of artists, musicians, the successful, the famous, rich and aristocratic.

Age 16, Paris Pret-a-Porter Fashion Week

805 Madison Avenue, 1992

In due course in the '80s and '90s, after a decade-long struggle, hard work, and many difficulties, she realized her dream when with a small bank loan of $120,000, she succeeded in building in New York a respected and profitable fashion business and eventually grew it to over $1.5 million annual wholesales and a luxury brand "Ulla-Maija" of international repute. Her clients included private individuals as well as big stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue stores, Neiman Marcus stores, Bergdorf Goodman, Nordstrom, and many others in the USA and abroad. While dressing those in the polished, glamorous society milieu, she became one of them, invited to exclusive charity dinners, parties, and special events with celebrities. View video.   

But her story took an unexpected turn: She overworked, exhausted herself, became ill, and decided to find investors. After finding enthusiastic investors, she engaged whom she thought was a reputable lawyer who recommended an allegedly honorable consultant-come-manager. 

​All hell broke loose. She became a victim of fraud and conspiracy to destroy her life and her career and take everything she had built. Betrayed...

(NOTE:  The following brief and rough outline leaves out events, issues and details of the story, since they are too shocking to write about here at this time. Contact for details, documentation, and corroboration.)

Betrayed, persecuted and humiliated by a group of ruthless, greedy and cruel business advisors who not only colluded to take her business from her, but to destroy her. As retaliation for talking about fraud and gross abuses at her company against her and her employees, she was suddenly locked out of her offices without notice, prevented entrance by guards, her salaries were not paid, her health insurance was cut on the spot, and she was terrorized by threats. She was told that she would never work in New York again. She lost her livelihood, job, business, career, homes, all material possessions, reputation and identity. Her trademark, which is her Finnish first name, Ulla-Maija, was stolen and eventually, even her life story. Fraudulent documents were filed at the United States Patent & Trademark Office: View fraudulent federal trademark filing documents of "Ulla-Maija" trademark (USPTO). 

Ulla-Maija Inc., New York, 1999

Realizing the lack of support from law enforcement agencies and the impossible cost of finding justice through legal channels in the USA, at this point, she started a new business and set up custom couture production based in Guangdong, Southern China, which showed immense promise. But her sadistic adversaries continued to punish her mercilessly by using as a tool the U.S. federal court and multimillion-dollar lawsuits to wear her out, to stop her from working, designing, and competing with the company she had made successful and which carries her name. She was driven out from her industry.

​Her career, reputation and her new business also destroyed, instead of developing her new company, her design talents, her brand and her lines of unique products, she was subjected to over a decade-long, yet-unfinished litigation in the U.S. federal and state courts. After 7 years the federal court case was closed so that it can be continued in the future as if it had never been closed. View court documents

Broken, broke, and struggling to cope with mounting legal fees and severe trauma in an environment seemingly gone mad, she withdrew from the fast-paced world of business and glamour. She searched for balance and meaning, engaging in a life of austerity while studying yoga philosophy and Indian music and spending much time in yoga ashrams both in the USA and in India. These universities of the spirit indeed gave her a new start. She realized the healing power, heart opening, transformational energy of music, and joy of chanting. ​It became her lifesaver, shelter in crises, and a respite in the midst of her adventures.

Her attempt to build a new life and career in New York as a successful music producer and executive director in a dignified, non-profit, peace-promoting, spiritual, fine-art setting ended up with astounding events of unbelievable greed and fraud. Her nightmare was repeating itself: She became again a whistle-blower and the target of two board members, who were stealing millions from her employer. They created a malicious, disgusting, and expertly planned campaign to push her out of the way, to destroy her livelihood and credibility, and once again, she was not believed until it was too late, and she was asked to help convict and imprison these criminals.  Read the District Attorney's press release.

Raleigh Studios, Los Angeles, 2006

Creative Tech Pro

After long black years of introspection, soul searching, and study, she devoted herself to service as a creative tech pro by helping others to adjust to the rapidly changing world of digital communication so that they too can take advantage of the opportunities presented by the internet, to shine their light to the dark corners, and to present their creativity, work and mission to the entire world.

Her epic and exhausting search for justice, return of her properties, and any information about the company or her equity in the company she founded and grew continues today despite a lack of support from both state and federal law enforcement agencies, substandard lawyering and victim blaming. 

​The ongoing defamation and retaliation against her continue unabated today. The destruction of her reputation is alive on the internet as fabricated stories about her and the founding, funding, finances, debt, and performance of Ulla-Maija, Inc.

In 2023, a New York State Supreme Court judge dismissed a 4-year defamation case against her for writing here that she is a victim of fraud. The Hon. Judge Damaris E. Torrent wrote: Truth is a complete defense to a defamation claim, regardless of the harm done by the statement… Defendant established, prima facie, her entitlement to judgment as a matter of law. Read it in Justia.com

Her Nordic background and her more than 30 years-long sojourn into the realm of music, yoga, and studies of various Indian philosophies provide an interesting backdrop for a life of material success and failure and a revealing look at the life of a woman. In time, she learned to understand the world through her studies of yoga philosophy and practice, to see her struggles and successes from a new, wider, higher perspective, and to realize the purpose of her life in a world that is heading in a new direction at great speed.

In fact, her story is quite timely, for today, millions of people, especially women, ponder the state of the world, the abuse and injustice, the meaning of their life, and the possibility of a more humane life in general and the spiritual quest complete with its deeper values and mystical occurrences. They want to know about the “other” side of existence, which is less materialistic and more spiritually fulfilling.  Ulla-Maija's story includes all of this and so much more. 

Ulla-Maija Kivimaki, Bedford, NY, 2024

Public Benefit:  Ulla-Maija's projects include inspiring and helping others to tell their stories. A portion of the future profits from her project will go to expand a communication program that she has started to help mature women advance their computer skills and use the internet to bring their rich experiences to the global public. Her book will create greater awareness of the normalization of injustice and abuse inherent in women’s lives. The goal is to promote respect, dignity, and civil and human rights, especially for women and girls, and ultimately to serve as a catalyst for a necessary change in U.S. law. See the seedling state of her program at her website, "CreativeProBlog" https://creativeproblog.weebly.com

Contact for more information about the book.

Contact about USA publishing rights.

Contact about foreign publishing and translation rights.

The project is looking for donations, sponsors, grants and collaborators to help to get to the next level. Sponsors and donors will be thanked and recognized on the book, websites and other materials unless otherwise instructed by the donor/sponsor.