they’re really hilarious. I stay in touch with James Carpenter, too—he’s another glassblower. There were a lot of famous musicians there when I was in school: David Byrne and Talking Heads, Martin Mull. You’re still on the RISD board—clearly, you enjoyed the place. It’s got really vibrant culture. Now, there’s all kinds of famous alumni, like Shepard Fairey, Kara Walker, Dan Colen, Seth MacFarlane, and Jemima Kirke. I think it was cooler when I went there. It was more funky! It was such an exciting time. Providence is now a mellow, gentrified place with nice restaurants and a beautiful waterfront. When I went there, it was totally seedy! People were always burning down buildings in order to rebuild stuff, and furnishing apartments from abandoned furniture warehouses. There was a Mafia element, too. My go-to date-night restaurant is There were all these drag queen Tutto il Giorno on Franklin Street. bars downtown. Rhode Island had My favorite movie is Montenegro. all kinds of jewelry companies, so My biggest pet peeve is Providence was like a trove of cool synthetic truffle oil, because it’s all chemicals! stuff; all these stores had vintage My first New York neighborhood was the Upper East Side! I kept moving farther down, jewelry from the ’40s and ’50s, or amazing vintage fabric. Even and Tribeca stuck. the RISD students seem more I really can’t stand gum-chewing. conservative than when I was If I wasn’t a designer I would be there; there are always some funky a chef! I really love to cook in my spare time. people, but when I was there it felt My favorite hobby is like everyone was funky. wakeboarding and kiteboarding Sounds glorious. When did you on summer weekends in the Hamptons. first start collecting art? My most-listened-to track is My first pieces were from RISD “My Confession,” by Cornel Campbell. auctions, actually. To this day, one I never really got over of my favorite pieces I own is by the breakup of The Beatles. a RISD teacher [from an auction], If I could travel anywhere in the world, it would be to Iceland to see the Aurora Borealis. a still life of an apple and a water pail. Another amazing piece I got at an auction is by Peter Buchman, an artist who shows in the Hamptons a lot; it’s a 3-D sculpture called “Jazz Club.” Funny thing is, Dale always put things up for auction, and they were always just out of my reach, price-wise. One year, he sent me a big, lightweight box, and everybody thought he sent a glass piece. You know what it was? Some books. I was like, Damn. But I get plenty of goodies. How did your collection progress from there? I have a lot of things I haven’t even hung, that are wrapped up in storage. I keep a lot of pieces at the office, too, because I don’t have enough room at home. I have great pieces from Terence Koh and Peter Saul that I haven’t figured out where to put! Maybe I should start rotating the pieces in my apartment. Any collecting regrets? I always say the stupidest thing I ever did was not When did your love of art emerge? buy a Jean-Michel Basquiat. Mary really wanted me I was always an art lover, and have always enjoyed to meet him; she told me he was this really strong contemporary art, like [Roy] Lichtenstein—all those artist. She probably should’ve just sold it to me without ’60s modern artists are my favorites. Then I went to having me meet him, because he was just rude. I left RISD, a place with a lot of art and culture, and people and thought, No way am I buying a painting from this were creative in multiple ways. There was even a guy. I call that my $10-million-dollar mistake. And every tap dancing troupe. I’ve stayed in touch with a lot of year, that mistake’s [price] goes up. Did you see that people from there over the years. Basquiat painting that just went for $110 million!? One Such as? of my girlfriends lived with him for a year. He broke up Mary Boone was in a class with me freshman year, with her, and when he left, he left behind about 100 and she’s probably the [gallery] I’ve bought the pieces of artwork. She was so pissed off, she packed most work from over the years. We’re great friends; them in boxes and sent them to him; she says he never I just talked to her a few days ago. Dale Chihuly was would’ve asked for them back. [Laughs] a teacher while I was there, and he’s a good friend Who else have you crossed paths with in the now. I always get little packages in the mail from him: art world? crazy postcards, books.... It’s the coolest thing. He That same girlfriend actually worked with Andy doodles on the packages, puts tons of old stamps… Warhol, so I got to hang out with Andy a lot. It was so
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PLUS! 10 THINGS YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT NICOLE
much fun! We’d do these blind-date dinner nights— everyone would bring a date to match with someone else, and the guests were never in on the secret.… Andy was really hard to set up. One night, we brought this guy for Andy; he was Toulouse-Lautrec’s great grandson or something, and he was definitely not interested in Andy. It’s just that Andy was quirky and different, or picky. Any other particularly memorable encounters with artists? I met Roy Lichtenstein at a birthday party. I’m not going to give the inside story on that one. How have your artist pals influenced your own work? I’m friends with people like Eric Fischl, Ross Bleckner, and Will Cotton. I don’t know if it’s influenced me directly, but I love living around their art; I have pieces by all of those people. What are your favorite museums? I love the new Whitney, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Cooper Hewitt, especially its textile shows. I still haven’t been to the Met Breuer. And in Paris, you can’t beat the Louvre! Do you hit up art fairs regularly? I go to fairs here, like Frieze. The only one I’ve traveled to is Art Basel Miami for a bit, but it got to be such a zoo, I don’t think I’d go back. It became more about the parties, and then the art, if you could squeeze it in. I always go to the Brant Foundation in Connecticut in April and October. But what I really like is to spend a day in Chelsea and go to all those great galleries. You’ve been a NYFW stalwart for around a quarter of a century now. Highlights, please! Yikes! [Laughs] I have to say, my first fashion show was a great coup: I managed to get Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, and Naomi Campbell. We got one, and the rest of them came along. Anne Klein used to book its models for the entire day. It was so annoying! So I couldn’t get Christy and Linda for my second show, though I later got Christy intermittently. Naomi would walk me down the runway [as the finale] for almost every show, for my first five or six years. Sometimes, Naomi would have six changes in one of my shows; no girl has more than two changes now! If I couldn’t book one of the supermodels for a show, I’d be devastated. Then Kate Moss came along, and I’d get her. Then the models all decided they wanted to raise their rates one year, so that put a damper on things. Any other shows—and go-to girls—that have really stood out over the years? I really liked Spring ’91 and Spring ’94. Karen Mulder was one of my absolute favorites. When I saw her I said, “I’ve got to get that girl.” Same thing with Karen Elson. I knew I had to get her the second I saw her, too. The first time she came to my office, I said, “Where have you been? You kind of sprang up out of nowhere!” And she goes, “No, I’ve been around, but I just dyed my hair and cut it, and now everyone’s paying attention to me.” How has your personal style evolved? I never wore jeans for years; I was into miniskirts, black pantyhose, and boots. Now, I love black jeans, and wear them all the time! What do you hope your brand looks like 25 years from now? Oh, I’ll be retired by then! [Laughs] I’ll probably still be coming into the office and harassing everyone. I hope the brand will be ongoing, and that it’ll maintain its young attitude. I think the longer companies are in business, the clothes tend to get more conservative. We’ve never done that; we’ve always had young customers. I don’t want to wear old lady clothes! ß FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M