Nicole Miller: The Cool Girl for the Cool Girls
Written by Emily Spennato
Nicole Miller has always been the ultimate cool girl. As she greets us in her New York City showroom, she fits the description. Her hair and makeup were still perfect at 3 p.m. on a New York Tuesday. Six hours earlier, Nicole’s audience was that of Good Morning America, chatting about the preceding night’s MET Gala styles. Now, her audience is the ladies of Nicole Miller Manayunk – two interns, Molly Dalton and Emily Spennato, and a marketing and retail coordinator, Zara Barrett, who are excited to sit down with a designer who has helped shape the fashion industry. For us, the excitement is boiling over, but Nicole’s attitude relaxes the room. She really is the ultimate cool girl.
Nicole has curated her brand to what has been described as the perfect balance of uptown and downtown. Her Seventh Avenue workspace reflects that image; business as usual, but never boring. As a designer, she stays true to her personal style – classic with edge, like her iconic red hair. Bold colors and prints on classic shapes are one of her specialties. Luckily for Nicole, it’s now an industry propelled by innovation and technology, which are two things she has always prioritized. As any business owner knows, these were also key survival skills during the pandemic.
Uptown, Downtown, and All Over the World
While as a designer she embodies New York City through and through, Nicole Miller’s fashion roots trace back to Paris and Rhode Island. Born in Fort Worth, Texas and raised in Massachusetts and New York, Nicole spent time developing her skills at the Rhode Island School of Design. However, it was during her year at L'Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne in Paris that she learned to treat her designs like a work of art. Born to a Parisian mother, Nicole always knew the influence of French fashion. “It was very different from an American teaching institute,” she explained. “You had to do everything with a needle and thread. We had to mark the grain lines with thread and it took forever. You would make this whole dress and stitch up all the seams and then you’d present it to the teacher. She would look at it and say ‘C’est pas chic,’ and walk away. After a while it kind of hit home that you were working on a piece of art.”
Tough love seemed to work well for Nicole, as it was these skills and fabric manipulation techniques that helped shape her career. She leaned into what she learned during her education and became known for her pleating and draping. These styles have shaped her iconic dresses. “I’ve always loved my tucks and pleats,” she said.
Coming out of a year where comfort was the priority (Goodbye, forsaken prairie dresses!), Nicole is thrilled to be designing for a world with events again. Dresses are and have always been her specialty. “I have to say I’m glad that trends came back full circle for body conscious shapes. Everything was so Victorian and I’ve never been one for that. I love bright colors and I’ve always been good at body cons.” Nicole’s playful and bright Spring 2022 Collection mirrors how people are feeling about fashion again -- excited! Nicole was no stranger to the hardships of the pandemic as a designer and businesswoman. “During the pandemic, we did a lot of things ourselves. We were tie dying and embroidering. It made us more self-sufficient. We started doing more up-cycling as well.” For her fall collection, Nicole features up-cycled flannel patchwork in a not-so-subtle nod to the 90’s school girl vibe.
Nicole adapts to change by continuing to design for her wearers in addition to what she is inspired by. The Nicole Miller Spring 2022 Collection combined “nature with abstractions, full of bright psychedelic florals, surreal prints and abstract shapes.” It channeled the work of Polish pop artist Wojciech Fangor and featured prints such as “My Happy Place” designed for a crewneck sweater, maxi evening gown and button-down blouse. Nicole’s youthful and playfulness keeps her customers surprised and excited to see something new.
Riding the Wave of Tech
Whether it’s a restaurant, vacation destination or great fashion trend, Nicole has always been the first in line to try something new. As a designer for the digital age, she also knows that people are always going to want what’s next. “I really feel like sometimes you’re the victim of your own success,” she said. “You keep making this dress and you say, ‘I don’t want to make this dress anymore!’, but people keep buying it and then ask why you don’t make anything new. “Well, you didn’t want anything else!”
Nicole saw joining the COVET Fashion app/video game after its initial launch in 2013 as an opportunity to share more of her styles with a wider demographic in hopes to fix this problem. The video game and styling tool, available in the Apple and Google Play stores, allows users to discover and engage with real fashion brands, trends, and get recognized for their style. As one of the designers featured, Nicole has seen it as a great opportunity for her company, since the app has only grown. The pandemic caused a surge in online retail presence. “We’ve been with COVET since the very beginning,” said Nicole. “It’s been very beneficial to us and has a very broad demographic”.
That demographic is building the future of the fashion industry off of the foundation that Nicole laid. With the onset of technology came influencers and digital media experts. When it comes to choosing her own influencers and style representation, Nicole said brand identification is important to her. “I’m more interested in developing relationships with people who really like my designs, and that takes time.”
Sustainability and the Dreaded F-Word
Many designers and business owners find the digital landscape difficult to navigate, but Nicole utilizes technology as a way to streamline sustainability. “I always liked technology and advancements, but I feel like a lot of focus on sustainability is greenwashing,” she explains. “I think the real problem is mass market companies producing at mass volumes for people who just think they can throw that stuff away when it falls apart. When models come in for casting and they have a cool pair of shorts or shoes, they get them at Zara. Fast-fashion is a real problem.”
Nicole tries to incorporate sustainability into every collection, whether it be through using fabrics made of recycled materials, up-cycling garments, or embroidering pieces by hand. She stressed finding recycled fabrics that look quality enough is difficult. “Something like a great Italian fabric that is made of recycled fibers; I love them when you can find them, but very often these fabrics are more expensive and you have to make sure if you are buying one, it’s really special and people will pay for its uniqueness. If it just looks like any other thing, you’re not going to be able to sell it.” And like a true innovator, she also knows when to think outside the box, even in the way she gives back. “I refuse to do charity t-shirts,” she said with a laugh. “Do something cool. There are cooler things we can be doing to support a charity.” Spoken like the ultimate cool girl.
What’s the Philly Connection?
Mary Dougherty first met Nicole in the early 80’s when Mary began representing Nicole’s wholesale business. Nicole’s business partner, Bud Konheim, talked Mary into opening a licensed Nicole Miller store in Philadelphia. Originally, they had their sights set on Center City. At the time, Manayunk was an up-and-coming destination with a cool restaurant scene, but it was in need of another retail gem. Suddenly, there was an internationally recognized designer name on Main Street, and Manayunk solidified its dot on the Philadelphia map.
It was Manayunk’s innovation that pushed Mary Dougherty to open the doors of the first Nicole Miller Philadelphia store in 1994, and it’s the same innovation and scrappy business model that’s kept them thriving since. In 1997, they were already opening a second location at the Bellevue Hotel. Jillian Dunn, longtime retail expert, oversaw the Bellevue location for eight years before joining Nicole Miller Manayunk as managing partner in 2020.
Throughout their careers, Mary and Jillian have experienced social turmoil from September 11th to the financial crisis to political unrest, but nothing jilted the fashion industry quite like the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the city of Philadelphia ordered businesses to shut down in March 2020, home drop-offs, Zoom appointments and online shopping became the norm for Nicole Miller Manayunk. Every social event disappeared, and so did a need for Nicole’s iconic evening wear. After canceling every gown order, Mary and Jillian shifted their market focus to sportswear. In addition, they curated a space for virtual shopping appointments, and partnered with influencers to connect with new customers. And even in the hardest of times, Mary and Jillian managed to keep their philanthropic spirits alive. The team sold thousands of masks and donated partial proceeds to COVID-19 relief fund, Fuel the Fight, Homefront NJ and the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Despite aspects of the fashion industry being decimated, “We were able to keep the lights on and meet our customers where they were. Our mantra was ‘Plan B, stay positive!’”, said Mary.
In addition to the two Philadelphian fashion trailblazers leading the way, the Nicole Miller Manayunk team also includes retail operations and marketing coordinator Zara Barrett, digital styling intern Molly Dalton, and retail operations intern Emily Spennato. Mary and Jillian never stop sharing their expertise to three willing and eager twenty-somethings, who all share different strengths from digital styling to graphic design to journalism. These three skills have become major drivers of change in the fashion industry. “It is important to keep mentoring the younger fashionistas not only for them to have real-life experience in the industry, but for us to continue to gain a fresh perspective”, said Mary. So, we went directly to the source. That’s how three fashion lovers and graduates of Marist College, Drexel and Temple Universities found themselves sitting across from Nicole Miller in her Manhattan showroom.
Conquering What’s Next
The Nicole Miller Manayunk store has been to Manayunk and Mary Dougherty for 28 years with managing partner Jillian Dunn; owners of the boutique. What Nicole Miller has been to New York’s fashion scene; a constant for those familiar, a hidden gem for fresh eyes. One of Nicole’s most valuable assets has been her ability to channel what works for her as a designer, in addition to asking, “What comes next?” However, the pandemic proved that adaptability is much more valuable than foresight.
As young professionals in the industry, Molly, Zara and Emily have learned from Mary and Jillian that there is a complexity and power to the game of dress-up; trends don’t tell you when they change, they show you. Customers don’t always know exactly what they want, and they trust us to tell them. It’s a game more frustrating than people on the outside realize, but we’ve learned to make our moves like Nicole, Mary and Jillian. Because at the end of the day, we’re just cool girls taking it from the ultimate cool girl herself.