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Nikicio: Style that lasts
Just as music has its mainstream and indie groups, the fashion industry also have its own mainstream and underground labels
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Just as music has its mainstream and indie groups, the fashion industry also have its own mainstream and underground labels.
Two-year-old Nikicio is one of the latter. The label has never held a fashion show in the country and it has yet to have a boutique of its own. Even so, it has received rave reviews by international fashion bloggers -- stylebubble.com, thefashionisto.com -- has paraded through fashion spreads in national magazines -- Cosmogirl!, Seventeen, Rolling Stones -- and counts buyers as near as Jakarta and as far as London and New York.
Classic and timeless, Nikicio's style is inspired by men's wear. Loose-fitting shirt dresses in somber colors, tailored blazers, trench coats, high-waist shorts, oxford shoes, the designs are unisex statements that go beyond trends and seasons.
The creative spirit behind it all is 23-year-old Nina Karina Nikicio. A graduate of La Salle College International in Jakarta, Nina said she wanted to make pieces that would stand the test of time.
"I want Nikicio's style to be timeless. I want you to say when you see a garment of mine you like, 'I'm going to wear this for a long time'. It wouldn't be something that you would wear for only a season and then cast it off," she said.
Courtesy of Evelyn Pritt for Nikichio
Nina said her designs are very personal. She loves men's wear, can't kick the habit of borrowing her brothers' clothes and considers her father the best-dressed person she knows.
In fashion, she follows French designer Coco Chanel's philosophy, which she quoted: "Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what's happening."
She shared her thoughts while sitting in her friend's Fab. E boutique in Kemang, where she had some of her clothes out for sale.
Petite with straight, shoulder-length black hair she looked ultra stylish in her own designs. All in black, she wore a T-shirt dress wrapped with a tailored blazer, black sea-through tights and black oxfords.
After chatting a bit she was willing to show off her six-sleeved T-shirt. Taking off her blazer she showed how to put her arms through the other two pairs of sleeves. The T-shirt is her next project launching next week.
"The inspiration came to me once when I wished I had six arms!" she said.
She was not being over the top saying that. The year 2008 was a busy year for Nina. She had a lot on her plate. She produced three collections and two collaborative projects while overseeing the marketing for Nikicio.
How her designs became well received worldwide was a combination of her smart designs and marketing savvy. Instead of holding fashion shows in Jakarta, for each collection she published a look book on her website nikicio.com which contained shots of her friends sporting her designs.
She established good relationships with fashion editors in Indonesia and fashion bloggers around the world, which attracted overseas customers.
She acknowledged she is going a tad underground with her marketing techniques. But, she said, she was not trying to establish herself as an underground fashion designer.
"I would love to be mainstream and have a fashion show. It's just that I haven't thought about it yet," she said.
"Fashion shows are all about exposure. I just need to sell clothes. I believe that with a good look book people will want to buy my creations or at least try out my designs," she said.
She works closely with longtime friend photographer Evelyn Pritt, responsible for all Nikicio photo shoots and the website.
"We go a long way back. And we have the same vision for Nikicio. I like her clean photographic style," she said.
Nina's career as a fashion designer started in Singapore. Spotted by internationally acclaimed designer Jonathan Seow of the label Woods&Woods after graduating from La Salle, Nina along with seven young designers worked under the mentorship of Seow in a project called Studio Prive.
Their collections were showcased at the Spring/Summer 2007 Singapore Fashion Week. She participated again in the Autumn/Winter 2007 Singapore Fashion Week.
She returned to Jakarta and started working on her 2008 collection. "At first I was afraid of starting it all, but I couldn't think of anything else to do in my life except designing, so I just went for it," she said.
Her next look book will launch in March. "It will still have classic cuts with somber monochromes, but I'm looking into hints of yellow and orange," she said.
