Nearly 45 years after starting her fashion brand in the garment district, Nicole Miller is still all-in on New York.
Four days a week, the designer treks from her Tribeca apartment to her Seventh Avenue office building — the same one where she built her fashion collection nearly 45 years ago.
Under Miller’s influence, New Yorkers began grabbing up the “boho chic” staples — hobo bags, wide-leg jeans, velvet slip dresses, and romantic, billowing blouses — that still influence American style today.
But before Miller built a brand worth nearly $700 million or dressed celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Beyoncé, she was like many high schoolers: making her clothes on a sewing machine at home in the Berkshires.
That led to studying at the Rhode Island School of Design, where classmates included future bohemian icons like David Byrne and Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads. After graduating in 1973, Miller beelined it to New York City.
“Where else would you go?” she asked — or score a one-bedroom Upper East Side apartment for $240 a month? (Fourth-floor walkups in the neighborhood now run about $3,500.)
Off-hours were spent at Studio 54, Max’s Kansas City, roller-skating at The Roxy, and attending Andy Warhol’s blind-date dinners at The Odeon, where everyone brought a blind date for someone else. Miller became part of that artistic downtown scene through her college friends, meeting the pop art king through photographer Paige Powell.
After early gigs as a design assistant, Miller joined the New York dress company P.J. Walsh, where she first met Bud Konheim, a brutally frank and fast-talking executive.
Though Miller was generally soft-spoken and relaxed, she found they made a good business pair, and in 1982, the duo quit their jobs to launch her namesake company. Konheim scraped together $100,000 from family and friends, and Miller pitched in $15,000 from her personal savings.
The risk was worth it: The brand struck gold in its first year with an easy-to-wear dress that flattered the body by draping easily across the waist, appearing almost belted at the hips. Her knack for making women feel relaxed but glamorous took off, and she racked up $5 million in sales in the first year.
Meanwhile, Miller was hitting the town with friends Jay McInerney, author of Bright Lights, Big City, and Balthazar restaurateur Keith McNally. As for how she met her longtime friend Candace Bushnell, author of Sex and the City?
“Well,” Miller said, “Candace used to date my husband.”
All in all, “It was just fun. Everybody was drinking too much,” she said. “There were always some new trendy restaurants in New York. We were at The Odeon all the time along with the whole art world.”
Being in such creative company fueled Miller’s own vision, and after her first hit dress became a magnet for cheap knockoffs, she imagined something new: designer ties for both men and women.
They took off in the late 1980s, when a security guard in Miller’s former Madison Avenue store wore a tie printed with ticket stubs to his night job at the Metropolitan Opera. A Met staffer noticed the flashy neckwear, and the historic music hub soon placed a hefty order for its gift shop.
Within two years, Miller’s novelty neckties became a $12 million business, with brands like Frito Lay and Veuve Clicquot wanting to collaborate. “In the beginning, nobody was territorial about their logos,” Miller said. “But with the candy tie” — a bestselling design featuring chocolate snacks hand-drawn by Miller and her team on silk — “we had M&M’s, Hershey’s, Nestlé, and Mars. They were like, ‘Thank you for making us a tie, but next time don’t put us with our competitors.’”
Miller’s booming tie business unexpectedly led to love. After a meeting with Absolut about their own custom cravats, one executive cajoled Miller into making her first-ever wedding gown for his friend, along with a series of bridesmaid dresses.
“I couldn’t say no because it was Absolut Vodka,” Miller said with a laugh. At the wedding, she met her husband, Kim Taipale, a former investment banker and lawyer. They married in 1996, with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani officiating at City Hall. “We had Champagne and caviar afterward,” she said. “He was such a good mayor, and now he’s gotten so weird.”
When wedding trends loosened up, the designer started offering some of her evening dresses in white. Then shoppers started asking for some of her cocktail dresses for bridesmaids, so she whipped up a bridesmaid dress line. “We kept getting asked to do these things. It happened spontaneously,” she said.
Meanwhile, the tie revenue allowed her to spend more on runway shows and cast major 1990s supermodels like Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, and Linda Evangelista, turning the media spotlight on the designer.
“They were very serious about their profession. And they were always really nice. It’s funny, because some of the second-tier models were always a little attitude-y,” she said. (Ever the professional, Miller declined to name names, but did share that Tyra Banks was “one of the nicest models ever.”)
The supermodels’ Midas effect led to some celebrity dressing and wardrobing for movies and TV. Cardi B, Angelina Jolie, Kim Kardashian, Brad Pitt, and Kim Cattrall have worn the label.
The designer got famous enough to make her own Barbie doll, along with a luxe collection for The Price Is Right contestants. She’s also served as a judge for the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants.
But in 2022, three years after her partner Konheim’s death, Miller decided it was time to take back some of her time. She sold a majority stake in the business and set up licenses for furniture, kitchenware, and beauty products. You probably have a Nicole Miller umbrella somewhere in your apartment.
But Miller soon realized she couldn’t avoid the style spotlight entirely.
In 2024, she started selling a new collection on QVC. A few times each month, she and her son Palmer Taipale, who works as her brand’s senior e-commerce and marketplace associate, go live on-air to front the label.
Sometimes, they even beam into their livestream from Miller’s Seventh Avenue showroom.
Nicole Miller’s brand turns 45 next year, but the designer is getting a jump on the milestone.
Today, she unveils a signature collection for the first time in three years. Some styles riff on old favorites — there are taxi cab prints and a strapless bandage dress made with the designer’s novelty neckties.
The designer has even reimagined her famous “baseball dress,” a sporty white tank dress with red stitching worn by Geena Davis to the 1992 premiere of “A League of Their Own.” The new version is longer, with sequins.
And Miller continues to feed off the city’s energy. She and her husband live in a 3,100-square-foot apartment that used to be three separate spaces — including the original apartment where she used to roller-skate around her living room on weekends. Their son also lives in the building.
“There’s just so much to be inspired by here, just walking around all of the different neighborhoods. If you’re a theater buff, you can go to the theater, or go to concerts and all kinds of things,” she said, continuing to scout new haunts. (Current favorites include Wild Cherry at A24’s Cherry Lane Theatre and Patsy’s Pizzeria in Harlem.)
Miller’s hard, enterprising work has also earned her a Sag Harbor manse, where the designer likes to waterski in the summer. She only recently stopped wakeboarding. (“If you wipe out, you wipe out hard,” she explained.) Friends include Countess Luann de Lesseps and Dexter producer Sara Colleton.
As for the company she’s built, Miller said, “I just look at it as, I’m still having a good time, and I’m enjoying what I’m doing.”