At JONES, N-ovative created the best fitting jeans in the market. We know how to create fits that compliment women's multiple shapes and sizes while making women feel amazing and confident. In doing so, we created the JONES NEW YORK denim fits that are top sellers: Madison Slim, Essex Jean Tori Seamless, and she re-engineered the classic Lexington jean.
N-ovative created this 90's streetwear brand that still exists today: Dollhouse.
N-ovative lead the creation of the name, the brand DNA , the collection, marketing, and opened a retail store to make this the cool kids brand in the 90’s. In addition Dollhouse was awarded best contemporary/streetwear brand in 96’ by WWD.
At Dollhouse grew the annual wholesale volume -$35 million in 4 years. Key retailers of the brand were Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, Delia’s, Alloy, Scoop, and more.
At Free People, Nicole was the design director of the Free People Collection. She worked with the design teams on the wholesale and retail collection that delivered to the consumer every month. One of her highlights was working with the knits designers on creating a unique texture of thermal that is relevant in the business today. She also inspired a military/utility capsule that created classic anoraks to utility bottoms and camo shirts.
In addition, Nicole's designed her limited edition dresses which embodied the spirit of the brand.
Nicole created the concept of “Ag-ed” denim after the owner of AG Jeans, Mr. Koo came back from Asia with a new denim manufacturing machine that create realistic whiskers on jeans. While working with Mr. Koo, Nicole reworked all the washes to be vintage inspired. This was a new concept. From here, she created the concept of Ag-ed and changed the AG Brand forever. At the Bread & Butter show, the head of Diesel wash complimented her for her “Brilliant” wash development.
N-ovative partnered with Amanda Gneiding on creating their own brand called MILIEU.
MILIEU encompasses everything we love about the girl that covets the unique piece that makes her closet feel curated. We draw inspiration from the social culture we curate around us, picking up a little thread from here, a stitch from there, we collectively string it all together to thoughtfully design each piece. With an emphasis on craftsman quality tailoring and high end raw materials, the brand aims to transcend a lifecycle beyond trend, universally flattering specialty pieces that will become future vintage.
Nicole gave Kenneth Cole Denim an edge in the contemporary market. She mixed new silhouettes with forward thinking vintage modern denim (Hollow Core Denim) .She designed two-tone denim styles, created coated garments and delivered discharge printing techniques on denim. This innovative denim line is a fresh new face in a sea of ordinary denim.
Nicole lead the creative direction for the launch of "Nanette Nanette Lapore", denim and casual collection. This new brand was featured in 50 retail doors in Macy’s in January 2016.
Nanette Nanette Lapore's DNA is unique feminized casual brand. Every design looked as though it was hand-made for "you". Each style had a special unique detail, which the consumer loved such as wash/dye techniques, embroidery, prints, laser techniques, and embellishments.
Brooklyn Denim Co. is one of the top denim retailers in New York. N-ovative joined Brooklyn Denim Co. and designed a men's collection all made in the USA. N-ovative introduced a new denim wash range that was mostly free of Dry process on the jean. Notative took 4 of Cone's White Oak Selvage denim and delivered an exciting selvage. This collection will be available in store, April 2015.
Libby Edelman is a special clothing collection that launched in JCPenny's in Fall of 2017. Nicole leads the denim design from Global Brands.
Nicole saved the Mossimo business at Target.
In 2004, Nicole saw that Mossimo’s sales dropped from $ 985 million to $ 850 million. She worked with Mossimo about a plan to increase sales by changing the overall sales and design strategy to be more brand appropriate and mainstream that subsequently increased sales at Target from $850m in 2004 to $ 1.8b by 2006 by delivering this inspired new California design. Mossimo sold the company for $ 132 million in 2006.
Nicole was brought to Anthropologie to build their casual business. She improved private label penetration from 20% to 50%. How do you ask..... Nicole created "Pilcro" the first in house denim brand which competed with AG jeans and other premium brands in the market. Nicole also lead ”sculpted knits” that topped company sales with a 60% comp and knits became 25% of the company’s apparel business.
N-ovative worked with Urban Outfitters to rebuild the BDG brand. Denim, washed bottoms, and outerwear were the focus. She increased the sales by 6% while other divisions had negative comps.
Jack Co., the unisex vintage inspired collection, was the first streetwear collection Nicole worked on in the 90's. It opened her eyes to the streetwear industry and inspired her to create Dollhouse.