Mumi Haiati

The founder of Reference Studios has helped solidify Berlin’s place in the global fashion system and become a trusted resource for the fashion industry.

Haiati’s counter-cultural communications agency takes on a range of assignments, from public relations to special projects, with artists and brands, including 032c and Gentle Monster, as well as Supreme, Universal Music Group, Rimowa, Gucci and Nike. 

Haiati attended the Istituto Europeo di Design , then served as a public relations director for menswear designer Boris Bidjan Saberi before founding his first venture, Bureau Haiati, a multidisciplinary communications agency in 2014. 

Haiati launched Reference Studios in 2017, with a vision of forming an agency built on creativity and globalism for today’s world: where luxury, brands, consumers, online and offline often collide. The studio aims to rework how brands think about consumers.

In February 2024, with Reference Studios I launched "Intervention" in Berlin – a new format developed to elevate Berlin Fashion Week, and commissioned by Berlin's Senate Department for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises. The runway format aims to engage globally relevant designers with a strong Berlin connection in the place that informs them the most. Shayne Oliver famously became part of the first edition with his Anonymous Club label, while for the upcoming second edition we have added GmbH among others to the lineup. In 2024 Reference Studios keeps expanding, both in its offering through a collaborative perfume project, as well as geographically with a new HQ in Paris.