Fashion’s New Matron
BEVERLY HILLS — Nicky Hilton is nestled in a back patio booth at the Beverly Hills Hotel Polo Lounge, primed to chat about her new career as designer of the Chick by Nicky Hilton line…oh, and that other recent development in her life, becoming the new Mrs. Todd Andrew Meister.
“I didn’t know it would be such a big deal,” she offers, appearing to be genuinely amazed that her marriage immediately made CNN.
When the obvious is pointed out, that she is, after all, a Hilton sister, her darkly tanned cheeks flush. But she quickly dispels the notion that this was another impulsive celebrity-gone-wild stunt. Yes, Meister is 13 years her senior and she’s two months shy of 21, but her mother was only 19 when she walked down the aisle. And god, no, she isn’t pregnant, and doesn’t plan to be for a very long time.
“We’ve been best friends forever,” she says of her relationship with Meister.
“That’s what’s so annoying, the way the press is reporting it like we just up and went to Vegas.”
Bijou Phillips, who attended the wedding, spells it out: “Nicky is a really private person. What were they going to do, announce it? It would have been a nightmare.”
Hilton’s parents weren’t there; it was always planned that Paris would walk her down the aisle. “We’ll probably do something bigger later,” Nicky says. “We just wanted to keep this small and simple.”
That extends to what the bride wore. “I had just a really pretty white dress I got in Malibu the week before,” she says, “by no one in particular.”
“My sister was cute,” she adds.
“She was crying,” Phillips says.
It all went rather smoothly, in fact, in that scarily efficient way Vegas weddings run: no wait at City Hall — open 24 hours for just such life-altering events. The limo driver guided them through the process until he deposited them at the Las Vegas Wedding Chapel. Immediately following the 2 a.m nuptials, the party returned to Los Angeles by private jet. “It’s really no big deal,” Hilton repeats.
Holing up at this hotel isn’t really a honeymoon, either. Nicky is there to “get away from it all.”
So where is Mister Meister? “It sounds so weird, ‘My husband’s in Chicago.’ When I read in the paper, ‘The former Miss Hilton,’ I was like, ‘Former? Oh my god!’”
There’s no decision yet on whether she’ll take his name, but they will divide their time between Los Angeles and New York.
So, along with wife, Hilton is adding clothing designer to her roster of roles, which include host for E Entertainment Television, which she’ll resume for next month’s Emmys; runway model; jewelry designer, with her sister; hair accessory designer for Scunci, and handbag designer under the Samantha Slaven label.
The Chick collection will feature neat Oxford shirts and pleated minis mussed up by screen-printed cherubs, and slinky jersey togas worn alone or over pants. There are chiffon hoodies, spray-painted jackets, heavily beaded mesh tanks and even a chain-mail top to layer over it all. The denim — indigo, treated or dyed in pink, yellow or green — all comes stitched in turquoise to match her eyes, she says.
Hilton is working on her new line with the New York- and Hong Kong-based licensing firm Ben Bin, run by father-son team Alan and Ross Fredman, also creators of the Cheryl Tiegs collection. They were the only suitors Hilton met with before signing on.
“I think they just get me,” Hilton says of the Fredmans and the young in-house team with whom she’s working closely on everything from design to marketing. The Fredmans and Hilton formed a licensing corporation under the Chick by Nicky Hilton name to create other licensed products and distribution worldwide.
“There is a definitive fashion edge in this line,” Alan Fredman says during the branding shoot with David LaChapelle. “It’s almost a contemporary headset, a sophistication at junior price points.” The collection will wholesale from $25 to $150, and the Fredmans expect first-year domestic sales to reach $30 million via better department stores and specialty boutiques.
“Chick” has been Hilton’s nickname since birth. “I was this little tiny thing with big blue eyes and big, blonde, fuzzy hair,” she says. “I looked like Tweety Bird.” The former student at Parsons and the Fashion Institute of Technology knew what she didn’t want for Chick. “There’s so many celebrities who [just] lend their name to a line, which so takes all the fun out of it,” she says. “I’m really hands-on.”
“This [clothing line] is like a really big deal to me,” she adds. “I really want to put all my heart and soul in it.” — Rose Apodaca Jones
from wwd
i know...i thought that was the d 12 logo airbrushed on the jeans.
