Whether on The Plaza or at its new location in Grandview, Tirza Design support women

By Ben McCarthy

Last summer, downtown Grandview gained one of the more unique retail startups in the Kansas City area when Tirza Design opened with a retail inventory that highlights everything from women’s fashion… to certain hand-to-hand combat weapons. 

Nikkie Affholter brought Tirza from the Country Club Plaza last year, where it had been since the Spring of 2022, and relocated to 820 Main Street. Affholter’s eclectic shop showcases an array of products from local vendors, with an emphasis on women’s fashion and jewelry, but a larger effort is to help the area’s most at-risk women.

Affholter describes the business and its mission as: “fashion with a purpose – committed to the empowerment of women, who have survived human trafficking, exploitation, and other forms of abuse.” 

Hence the wall of self-defense weapons, like a tomahawk, placed neatly alongside jewelry and designer soaps.

It all began in 2020, when she was volunteering at local care centers for victims and saw a pattern of connectivity between the issues they were dealing with: domestic violence, drug abuse, and human trafficking. 

“I saw women stuck in this cycle,” Affholter said. “The only jobs they could find would be entry level.  So I started making these jewelry kits, something to give them flexible income coming in. These women need to see an exit strategy.”

Affholter says domestic violence exploded in Kansas City during the Covid-19 pandemic-related lockdowns as women did not have work, and were more prone to staying in abusive environments due to financial pressures. She also saw online sales growing, and began piecing together a vision for how to best help women in those circumstances.
Those jewelry creations are now just some of the “survivor-made” brands in the store. Affholter counts 15 such survivor brands (and counting) at Tirza, which has also been able to invest over $10,000 in non-profits and social enterprises with like-minded missions. This includes items from Rended Heart, an organization just a short trip down Main Street, which focuses on helping sexually exploited or trafficked women. 

“Human trafficking — it’s not what you see in the movies, it’s very complex and very broad,” Affholter said. “Yes, it’s here in town — poverty plays a huge role, and kids are very vulnerable.”

Affholter is quick to clarify that Tirza is indeed a business, not a non-profit, albeit one with a larger mission in mind. The women who help her run the store, and fill it with unique, homemade products, are on an early step in a larger journey.

“We’re trying to help train these young women in entrepreneurship so they can build their own brands,” Affholter said. “That might include putting them on a path to have their own pop-up shops and websites. Something that’s their own and can be a part of redeeming their story.” 

Many of the store associates are victims themselves, some with their brands being featured inside Tirza. Sharley McCleery was looking after the store recently, which carries her “Beloved” jewelry line. McCleery and other associates treat the space not just as another brick and mortar retail store, but as a full-service education and resource center. Affholter wants customers to know the story behind everything they see in the store, and make sure the public knows that, for the most part, it’s all “made in K.C.”

“Customers are interested in knowing that the jewelry (and other things they are seeing in the store) are handmade and learning about that process,” Affholter said. “They really do care about the quality of jewelry, not necessarily if it’s the cheapest or most expensive.” 

Other brands in the store come from local vendors, like Katie Fordyce in Lee’s Summit. Fordyce’s “Peaceful Roots” line includes everything from bath salts to herbal teas, and in the spring she looks to add plants, a best seller for her when she participates at local farmers markets and other events. 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

“I was thrilled when Nikkie reached out to me and said she was open to having local vendors like me,” Fordyce said. “I’m not really able to afford my own store at the moment due to the costs of rent, so to have this opportunity to sell my products and help a cause (that is dedicated to helping other women) is very special.”

Affholter says traffic and demand in Grandview has been tremendous, especially after such a lackluster experience at the Country Club Plaza location. She counts the experience of being bought out by a larger retailer as a blessing. For now, she says the store will continue to operate only on Fridays and Saturdays (10am-4pm) until springtime, when she anticipates they will expand hours to four days a week (Wednesday through Saturday). On top of everything she’s juggling with the business, she and her husband, Joe, are expecting an addition to their family.
“I’m due any day now!” Affholter said. “It will be our fourth!”