#nikolaki

Debbie Matenopoulos | NIKOLAKI gown | Screen Actors Guild Awards | 2016

Katy Perry | Nikolaki Spring 2011 dress | Purr by Katy Perry Mexico Launch | 2011

The beautiful Debbie then told me how much she loved my designs and I told her how much I would love for her to wear one of my gowns for a "red carpet" event. We joked in Greek and then we were separated--I had to present the award and, well, she had to host the show, of course. Consequently, a week later, she was asked to host the 2007 Diversity Awards and her stylist asked if I could send over some gowns. To say that I was ecstatic to then find out that my "Miss Greece" had actually ended up wearing one of my designs to host the awards show is an understatement! She looked like a Goddess in my one shoulder, side-draped jersey gown. It is a style, which I coincidentally titled "Athena" and featured in white for my recent W San Diego Spring 2008 Collection. To illustrate what a class act Debbie is, she sent me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers as a "Thank You". Most times, I am lucky if I get the dress back dry-cleaned from some people! Needless to say, the name of that style will now be changed to "Debbie" thank you very much.

I admit, I am a bit of a clotheshorse and have trouble getting rid of things, so I just buy new closets to fit them all in. I have gotten better and do a "cleaning" every other month, and give away a lot of my clothes to worthwhile organizations like "Out Of The Closet". They also got a lot of fun photos of me holding up several pieces from my NIKOLAKI collection so you get a look inside my "Atelier" and where I have all my gowns --I look just like a Showroom Rep! They even got me to show them my special pull-out drawer that encloses my tie collection(I have over 50!), it looks like a tie display at Barney's NY! Make sure to click on all the three pages , since they took a photo of the mini-shrine I have devoted to the my "Project Runway My Scene Barbie". To View my Closet click HERE

Miss Runway Diva, my friend Amanda Fields, just sent me this photo of actress Emily Osment, wearing a dress that is strikingly similar to one I did last Summer and which Amanda herself modeled at an event at Emmett McCarthy's New York City boutique, EMc2. She sent me these photos as proof as well as the text below. I love that she is looking out for me... Big kiss Miss Amanda...and knock 'em dead at Los Angeles Fashion Week this week!! From Amanda: "So I saw this on 20/20 tonight when they were discussing child stars. Emily Osment is 15 and on Hannah Montana. I got really excited because I thought it might have been your design! If it isn't.. somebody is getting inspired! (aka stealing your ideas!) I mean.. really! "

I was sitting at home watching TV and a commercial for the upcoming Ben Stiller comedy The Heartbreak Kid came on. I had to instantly grab my remote and put that commercial on PAUSE! I exclaimed, "She looks really familiar" I was talking about the actress who plays Ben Stiller's lunatic wife. She looks like a model who's done my fashion shows in the past, here in Los Angeles Fashion Week, I continued. After pausing it, I then realized, it was a model who had done my runway shows: Malin Akerman!!! Back in 2003, as we prepared to show in the first-ever Smashbox Los Angeles Fashion Week, we began doing the model castings and several agencies, including LA Models, sent us their top runway girls. I remember Malin coming in, doing the fittings and looking gorgeous in my designs. Of course, we ended up using her. Originally from Sweden, I believe, I loved her Nordic features--very "Ice Queen". She was an excellent runway walker and a dream to work with. So it was a nice surprise to see her now starring in a major Hollywood film. I also remember seeing her two years ago in a short-lived--but wonderful--HBO show starring Lisa Kudrow called "The Comeback", where she played a ditzy Beverly Hills 90210-ish actress really well. To me, I'll always remember Malin as my Ice Runway Queen.

Fashion Schmashion Last week was NY Fashion Week, and I spent it in Los Angeles. Much to the contrary of what had been rumored, I did not show at the Bryant Park Tents . Let me explain: I received many emails and calls here in LA from friends and industry people saying, "Did you know you are showing?". I was like "No, I ain't". Well, a line called "Nicholai" is on the roster, they would tell me. Sorry guys, my line is NIKOLAKI. Nicholai is the brand-new line by Nicky Hilton, and while yes, the names sound familiar. They are not the same. You can see of my recent gowns from Spring 2008 above and to the left. I stayed here in LA, because I was working, teaching and filming segments for MSN.com/Style Studio for the Emmy's. So, to get my NY Fashion Week style fix, I turned to various fashion sites I love , such as Style.com, Cathy Horyn's blog for the New York Times and the fabulous Frillr.com site. This site had most of the NY designer's full runway videos up the next day, if not the same day. So I felt like I was there--without the rude people pushing, shoving and trying to get into a show, pretending they were "somebody". Speaking of videos vs photos, I would first look at the photos and my immediate reaction with some of the collections was a very Michael Kors meets Nina Garcia "I am underwhelmed". However, after I looked at the full runway video, with the models moving, seeing the backs of the gowns or dresses, plus the music, my view would change 360 degrees. This is a lesson in how photos DO NOT translate exactly what the clothes really looked like or what the designer had in mind in putting forth their "vision". I argue that a photo from Style.com cannot portray this accurately, but seeing the full-on video can. And in several instances, it changed my mind. Particularly, after seeing Vera Wang's Roman-inspired collection and Ralph Lauren's ode to "My Fair Lady". At first I wasn't moved but after watching these videos, I actually loved them. I was especially thrilled to see Vera Wang do a Grecian/Roman inspired collection, since that was essentially the theme for my recent NIKOLAKI Spring 2008 show at the W San Diego. Her take was less glam, but serenely beautiful. The draping was on-mark! My other favorites were the controversial Marc Jacobs collection and Diane Von Furstenberg, among others. Marc Jacobs' show began 2 hours late and was shown backwards (Marc took his bow at the beginning and the models came out from last look to first. ) Few fashion journalists and bloggers I read even commented on how the amazing Viktor and Rolf had done this "backwards show" several seasons before, as well as the illusive Martin Margiela. Jacobs' collection, at first, looked a mess. But after much viewing and thought, I thoroughly understood it. His take on sex, society and wearing your underthangs a la Britney and "Grey Gardens" meets Madonna circa 1985 was on a whole other level. People loved it or hated it. The argument I keep hearing towards Marc Jacobs is that we (Americans) need our own Galliano, or Viktor and Rolf--someone who goes "out there" and tantalizes, polarizes--and Jacobs, is the closest thing. Diane Von Furstenberg's show was Tahiti-Meets-Hawaii-in 1982. The French Disco soundtrack was sexy-hot and so were the flowy dresses shown on the runway. The bold colorful prints, sexy mumu's (I would never think those two words would go together!). The fact that she used so many models of color: HOT!!! After looking at her collection, I wanted to go to Hawaii and bring every single DVF mumu with me! Tres Chic. Click HERE to view the Ralph Lauren show. Click HERE to view the Vera Wang show. Click HERE to view Marc Jacobs show. Click HERE to view the Diane Von Furstenberg show.