02 12 2020 The New York Times Style Magazine

The New York Times Style Magazine February 12, 2020 “6 Emerging Designers to Know This Fashion Month” Designer Kenneth Nicholson, CFDA rising star, men ons studying at Academy of Art University.

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Kenneth Nicholson Kenneth Nicholson, 37 Kenneth Nicholson debuted his namesake brand in January 2016, with an offering of subtle, nontraditional men!s wear: sand-colored linen tunics, wide-cut white linen trousers and billowy cotton button-downs in soothing earth tones. This week, he showed his first women!s pieces with a joyful mixed-gender runway show in New York. "From the beginning, women have bought some of my men!s pieces,” he says, "So it was a natural evolution.” Nicholson, who is based in Los Angeles, grew up in Houston, Texas, and knew from a young age that he wanted to be a fashion designer — although he arrived at this goal by an unusual path. After studying at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, he joined the U.S. Navy in 2004 and worked on a military base in Afghanistan for a year; he later spent a brief spell in Phuket, Thailand, where he worked as an interior design consultant. These travels have deeply influenced his men!s wear, which has become known for its loose silhouettes, soft hues and fluid interpretation of masculinity. Nicholson!s new women!s pieces, which demonstrate his taste for unusual textiles, include a draped one-shouldered top made from soft-pink terry cloth patterned with white stars, a flared knee-length khaki skirt finished with a fringe of wooden beads and a matching white mesh top and skirt trimmed with a shaggy high-pile fabric that resembles upholstery fabric. The collection, which explored notions of home and heritage, was appropriately titled "From Grandma!s Couch.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/12/t-magazine/new-fashion-designers.html