Nearly 45 years after beginning her trend model in the garment district, Nicole Miller is still all-in on New York.
Four days a week, the designer treks from her Tribeca house to her Seventh Avenue workplace constructing — the same one where she constructed her trend assortment practically 45 years in the past.
Under Miller’s affect, New Yorkers started grabbing up the “boho chic” staples — hobo baggage, wide-leg denims, velvet slip attire, and romantic, billowing blouses — that still affect American type right this moment.
Nicole Miller in her Seventh Avenue showroom. Courtesy Nicole Miller Archives
But before Miller constructed a model value practically $700 million or dressed celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Beyoncé, she was like many excessive schoolers: making her garments on a stitching machine at house in the Berkshires.
That led to finding out at the Rhode Island School of Design, where classmates included future bohemian icons like David Byrne and Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads. After graduating in 1973, Miller beelined it to New York City.
“Where else would you go?” she requested — or rating a one-bedroom Upper East Side house for $240 a month? (Fourth-floor walkups in the neighborhood now run about $3,500.)
Off-hours were spent at Studio 54, Max’s Kansas City, roller-skating at The Roxy, and attending Andy Warhol’s blind-date dinners at The Odeon, where everyone introduced a blind date for someone else. Miller grew to become half of that creative downtown scene through her school pals, assembly the pop artwork king through photographer Paige Powell.
After early gigs as a design assistant, Miller joined the New York gown firm P.J. Walsh, where she first met Bud Konheim, a brutally frank and fast-talking govt.
Though Miller was usually soft-spoken and relaxed, she discovered they made a good enterprise pair, and in 1982, the duo give up their jobs to launch her namesake firm. Konheim scraped collectively $100,000 from household and pals, and Miller pitched in $15,000 from her private financial savings.
Naomi Campbell in an early Nicole Miller look on the catwalk in 1992. Courtesy Nicole Miller Archives
The danger was value it: The model struck gold in its first 12 months with an easy-to-wear gown that flattered the physique by draping simply across the waist, showing virtually belted at the hips. Her knack for making girls really feel relaxed but glamorous took off, and she racked up $5 million in gross sales in the first 12 months.
Meanwhile, Miller was hitting the city with pals Jay McInerney, creator of Bright Lights, Big City, and Balthazar restaurateur Keith McNally. As for how she met her longtime pal Candace Bushnell, creator of Sex and the City?
“Well,” Miller said, “Candace used to date my husband.”
All in all, “It was just fun. Everybody was drinking too much,” she said. “There were always some new trendy restaurants in New York. We were at The Odeon all the time along with the whole art world.”
Being in such artistic firm fueled Miller’s own imaginative and prescient, and after her first hit gown grew to become a magnet for low cost knockoffs, she imagined something new: designer ties for both males and girls.
Nicole Miller’s authentic ties from 1996. Courtesy Nicole Miller Archives
They took off in the late Eighties, when a safety guard in Miller’s former Madison Avenue retailer wore a tie printed with ticket stubs to his evening job at the Metropolitan Opera. A Met staffer seen the flashy neckwear, and the historic music hub quickly positioned a hefty order for its present store.
Within two years, Miller’s novelty neckties grew to become a $12 million enterprise, with manufacturers like Frito Lay and Veuve Clicquot wanting to collaborate. “In the beginning, nobody was territorial about their logos,” Miller said. “But with the candy tie” — a bestselling design that includes chocolate snacks hand-drawn by Miller and her group on silk — “we had M&M’s, Hershey’s, Nestlé, and Mars. They were like, ‘Thank you for making us a tie, but next time don’t put us with our competitors.’”
Miller’s booming tie enterprise unexpectedly led to love. After a assembly with Absolut about their own customized cravats, one govt cajoled Miller into making her first-ever wedding ceremony robe for his pal, alongside with a collection of bridesmaid attire.
“I couldn’t say no because it was Absolut Vodka,” Miller said with a giggle. At the wedding ceremony, she met her husband, Kim Taipale, a former funding banker and lawyer. They married in 1996, with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani officiating at City Hall. “We had Champagne and caviar afterward,” she said. “He was such a good mayor, and now he’s gotten so weird.”
When wedding ceremony developments loosened up, the designer began providing some of her night attire in white. Then consumers began asking for some of her cocktail attire for bridesmaids, so she whipped up a bridesmaid gown line. “We kept getting asked to do these things. It happened spontaneously,” she said.
Christy Turlington in Miller’s well-known “baseball dress” circa 1992. Courtesy Nicole Miller Archives
Meanwhile, the tie income allowed her to spend more on runway exhibits and solid main Nineteen Nineties supermodels like Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, and Linda Evangelista, turning the media highlight on the designer.
“They were very serious about their profession. And they were always really nice. It’s funny, because some of the second-tier models were always a little attitude-y,” she said. (Ever the skilled, Miller declined to identify names, but did share that Tyra Banks was “one of the nicest models ever.”)
The supermodels’ Midas impact led to some movie star dressing and wardrobing for motion pictures and TV. Cardi B, Angelina Jolie, Kim Kardashian, Brad Pitt, and Kim Cattrall have worn the label.
The designer got well-known enough to make her own Barbie doll, alongside with a luxe assortment for The Price Is Right contestants. She’s also served as a choose for the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants.
But in 2022, three years after her associate Konheim’s demise, Miller determined it was time to take back some of her time. She offered a majority stake in the enterprise and set up licenses for furnishings, kitchenware, and magnificence merchandise. You most likely have a Nicole Miller umbrella somewhere in your house.
Miller’s new marketing campaign was shot across the metropolis. Jeremy Choh
But Miller quickly realized she couldn’t keep away from the type highlight fully.
In 2024, she began promoting a new assortment on QVC. A few occasions each month, she and her son Palmer Taipale, who works as her model’s senior e-commerce and market affiliate, go reside on-air to entrance the label.
Sometimes, they even beam into their livestream from Miller’s Seventh Avenue showroom.
Nicole Miller’s model turns 45 next 12 months, but the designer is getting a bounce on the milestone.
Today, she unveils a signature assortment for the first time in three years. Some kinds riff on previous favorites — there are taxi cab prints and a strapless bandage gown made with the designer’s novelty neckties.
The designer has even reimagined her well-known “baseball dress,” a sporty white tank gown with crimson stitching worn by Geena Davis to the 1992 premiere of “A League of Their Own.” The new model is longer, with sequins.
The assortment marks Miller’s forty fifth 12 months in the enterprise. Jeremy Choh
And Miller continues to feed off the metropolis’s power. She and her husband reside in a 3,100-square-foot house that used to be three separate areas — including the authentic house where she used to roller-skate around her lounge on weekends. Their son also lives in the constructing.
“There’s just so much to be inspired by here, just walking around all of the different neighborhoods. If you’re a theater buff, you can go to the theater, or go to concerts and all kinds of things,” she said, persevering with to scout new haunts. (Current favorites embody Wild Cherry at A24’s Cherry Lane Theatre and Patsy’s Pizzeria in Harlem.)
Miller’s onerous, enterprising work has also earned her a Sag Harbor manse, where the designer likes to waterski in the summer season. She only not too long ago stopped wakeboarding. (“If you wipe out, you wipe out hard,” she defined.) Friends embody Countess Luann de Lesseps and Dexter producer Sara Colleton.
As for the firm she’s constructed, Miller said, “I just look at it as, I’m still having a good time, and I’m enjoying what I’m doing.”
Source hyperlink
