When she was just eight or nine years old, Nicole Scott made a list of all the amazing things she wanted to accomplish when she grew up. She set a high bar for herself with the ambitious goal of becoming a famous fashion designer by the time she turned 16.
While Scott fell a little short of that vision, the Louisville native and Ballard High School graduate did have her own fashion show at the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts at age 17. And now, as a full-time student at the University of Cincinnati, the soon-to-be 21-year-old is still well on her way to achieving that original dream with the launch of her brand and business, Nicole Scott Inc.
In an interview Tuesday, Scott told me it was her mom, Audrey, that encouraged her to take sewing lessons in high school after she decided to seriously pursue her dream career in fashion. She launched her first brand, uNICque Styles, while still at Ballard before deciding to go to college for a design degree in 2019.
At the time, Scott had never considered being a business owner — she just wanted to make fashion. But while looking to take the next step in her career in November 2020, Dave Christopher, executive director of AMPED’s Russell Technology Business Incubator (RTBI), saw the business opportunity for her.
“In that conversation with him, [Christopher] introduced me to RTBI and said, ‘You’re already enrolled because you have the potential and I think this could be something big if you put your mind to it,’” Scott said. “That's when I really started taking the business part serious and it was like, ‘OK, this is actually a career like that I need to focus on.’”
At the beginning of last year, Scott was balancing working as a visual merchandiser and stylist at Clay Luxury Kids through an internship and her RTBI coursework. Then, in the fall, she was launching her first collection under Nicole Scott Inc.
That collection, called “Unity,” was inspired by the outcomes of 2020 — the way the coronavirus pandemic changed the world and the civil unrest sparked by the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and others. Scott designed four, one-of-a-kind pieces, made from scrap fabric given to her by her mentor Tessa Clark, founder of Cincinnati’s Grind and Glaze and season 17 design contestant on Bravo’s “Project Runway.”
You can check out the pieces in the Unity collection here. Prices range from $20 to $45.
"I've always had a passion for sustainable design and trying to limit the amount of waste that I create as a designer, or just creating fashion that's more eco-friendly," Scott said about the collection designed from scrap fabric — previously unusable material. "I really wanted to create designs that showcase that and I wanted my brand to be a brand that could represent that or be an example to other brands to follow suit because the fashion industry is very, very wasteful."
In high school, Scott said she did a lot of avant-garde designs that were more like "wearable art" than traditional fashion styles. While she still describes her design style as unconventional, she's found a middle ground to appeal to younger generations interested in sustainable and ethical fashion practices.
Scott's next collection is a continuation of Unity, but for the summer season. Unlike the first few pieces of the collection released in the fall, it will have garments available in sizes extra small through 2X. She is working with Sew Valley, a Cincinnati nonprofit organization that specializes in sustainable, small-batch apparel manufacturing, to produce the line.
It's much more difficult to produce fashion sustainably, Scott said, not only because the materials are more expensive, but it's also a much slower process. She noted that Sew Valley pays its employees fair wages and invests in industry-standard machinery, all while operating as a nonprofit.
"Materials and production costs have been my biggest expense," she said. "So far, I've put in around $3,000 already into the summer collection and I have not even begun official production."
That $3,000 has gone towards pattern making, technical packages, materials and sampling/prototyping. She still has to pay for the actual production fees, shipping, packaging, marketing events, photoshoot and a summer collection fashion show.
Scott is currently seeking funding between $25,000 to $50,000 for the business. She considers RTBI to be an investor, although the organization has not yet made a formal investment, and she received a $5,000 grant from Render Capital and Louisville Urban League in October 2021.
Additionally, Nicole Scott Inc. will soon offer custom ordering services, a feature Scott hopes to add to her website by the end of the month.
Scott still has another two years of school, as she's in a five-year design program, but she said RTBI and her business coach JoCari Beattie, founder of JoBé Products, have played a crucial role in filling in the gaps with business education.
"They've helped me tremendously. RTBI gave me a business mindset, where I had always just looked at it through a fashion design lens," she said. "I feel like in five years, I could see myself in a space whether it's a studio or showroom, which would be a dream.
"I see this as my career, I see this as my destiny and my calling... I would really love to be the next big thing in fashion."
