Opened in Canning Town by Zee Filho and Julio Nadalini, the business offers Reformer Pilates, Yoga, HIIT and even sound baths at Caxton Works
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“We picked this gemstone because it has a nice strong colour and we wanted to avoid beige,” said Zee Filho.
“We don’t want to look the same as everyone else because we’re not.
“We know the classical way to teach Reformer Pilates, but we’ve created our own method.”
“Our logo has different facets – they represent different parts of a person’s life and we wanted to have a place where people could pay positive attention to them,” added Julio Nadalini.
Together the couple are directors of The Garnet Studio – recently opened in Canning Town over two levels in a unit at Caxton Works in Hoy Street.
Drenched in a deep, calming red, the space offers Reformer Pilates, Yoga, sound baths and HIIT classes on a daily basis.
a route into fitness
“We’re originally from Brazil and arrived in London in 2008 during the credit crunch,” said Julio.
“The jobs market wasn’t great so we started off in low paid jobs in restaurants and retail, but at some point we decided to move into something else.
“Fitness has always been a passion for both of us – we met in the gym, decided to come to the UK and got married in 2010. Instead of travelling we saved money to start our own business here.”
Zee added: “I’d been in the army for 10 years and it had got to the point that if I stayed any longer I would have been there forever.
“Originally we were only going to come to the UK for six months but then we stayed longer and longer.
“We learned the language and trained as fitness instructors.”
from Brazil to Kore to Garnet
The pair’s first business together was Kore Gallery in Fleet Street, which they ran for a year before relocating successfully to Whitechapel for five years.
However, the landlord of the space they were leasing had a different plan for it, so the couple took a step back from fitness for a bit before coming across a unit close to where they’d bought a home, in Canning Town.
While Kore had broadly been built to appeal to the LGBTQIA+ community, the aim for Garnet is to welcome everyone with a programme of classes to cater for all levels of fitness and ability.
The two brands, however, do have something else in common – a focus on community.
“We want to be welcoming to everybody,” said Julio.
“Fitness is about much more than just building muscle mass – it’s about feeling good.
“What we want is for people to come here, enjoy their class and then stay for 10 minutes after to get to know each other – we want to create a community.
“Sometimes in London, people from the same building might not know each other, but we’ve noticed since we opened that people now come to classes together and everything becomes more friendly.
“We don’t make anyone talk to others, we just create an environment where the teachers are nice to people and it allows them to chat freely.”
fully equipped
The Garnet Studio is arranged over two levels. Upstairs on the mezzanine, a line of cutting-edge Reformer Pilates machines await the next class.
Downstairs there’s plenty of equipment for high intensity exercise, TRX straps and shelves neatly stacked with Yoga props.
But beyond the workouts, Julio and Zee have plans to further develop their offering with a coffee shop to allow both clients and passers-by to hang out.
“It’s a quiet, calm space,” said Zee.
“The windows are sound-proofed so you don’t hear anything from outside.
“Our classes last 50 minutes and we typically run seven or eight each day. After, it’s really lovely if people can stay a bit longer instead of running home.
“We arrange the classes so people are able to talk to each other a bit, but nobody has to do anything they don’t want to.”
While the core of The Garnet Studio will always be its focus on Reformer Pilates, HIIT and Yoga, Julio and Zee are also happy to experiment and have hosted sessions for parents and kids as well as a floristry workshop combined with fitness.
“We realised we can do events like this and it can bring people closer,” said Zee.
“We’d love to move more towards this.
“For us, The Garnet Studio is all about feeling better.
“We always want to be positive. If people don’t feel great at the end of our classes, then we have failed in what we’re trying to do.
“Fitness should be functional, not about losing weight.
“We offer full body workouts that develop balance, flexibility and strength.
“When you get stronger, your posture changes, you stand taller.
“Just losing weight using drugs, for example, doesn’t make sense to us.
“We avoid using before and after images, because exercise should be about how you feel, not about how you look.”
Julio added: “The other problem with the drugs is that you lose muscle mass as well as fat, so you can end up being weaker when you’re older.
“Nobody wants that. We want to support the people who come to our classes.
“We are very mindful of the things we and the other instructors say and how we train people.
“If people are coming together, feeling better and doing exercise, then that’s good for us and right now we are working to make The Garnet Studio a success.
“We want to get things stable here and it’s really encouraging to see more and more people signing up for regular memberships.
“We want to be a place where we keep in touch with our clients, where we know their names and that we can maintain the quality of the product and control what’s happening.
“Perhaps then we might look at expanding through a franchise model.”
key details: The Garnet Studio
The Garnet Studio is open from 6am-10pm on weekdays and from 8am-2pm at weekends.
The business has an introductory offer of three classes for £45.
Monthly memberships start at £76 per month.
Full class timetables and details of packs and membership options are available on the studio’s website here.
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