Cheap Plus Size Lingerie Biography
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Nichole’s team worked with Beyonce’s personal stylist, making sure they had the singer’s measurements down to the last millimetre and knew exactly what she was after. They had just three days to pull it together.
Nichole, 30, has charged up to £10,000 for her bespoke lingerie in the past. So did Beyonce cough up, we ask, not sure if we’re expecting an answer. "Yes, Beyonce paid," she laughs. "Well, I don’t know if it came out of her pocket, but it was paid for. We charged £250, a friends and family rate."
If there’s one client who doesn’t really need a discount, it’s probably Beyonce. "But she came back and bought directly - and no, I can’t say what she bought. So she was obviously happy. Jay Z looked like he was quite happy with it, didn’t he?"
We’re chatting to Nichole at London Fashion Week. Models, celebrities, bloggers and photographers fill the courtyard of exclusive arts and cultural centre Somerset House, in west London, where the marquee is set for designer catwalk shows and Frow (that’s front row, FYI) appearances from some of the biggest names in fashion and TV. Alexa Chung, Kate Moss, Care Delevingne, Olivia Palermo and Pixie Lott are among the faces who made headlines at the event.
Inside, Nichole, a Wigston born-and-bred former Miss Leicester, is showcasing her work to potential clients, press and stylists. A small rail is filled with a handful of her creations, including the Beyonce piece. It was made bespoke for the singer, but Nichole added it to her mainline collection following the press it received. It would cost you £750-plus, depending on gems or embellishment, she says, confirming Beyonce definitely got a good deal.
As well as the singer, Nichole’s celebrity clients include Nicole Scherzinger, Paloma Faith, Jessie J and Daisy Lowe, who have all worn her designs publicly, plus several other well-known names that she’s sworn to secrecy about.
And it all started here in Leicestershire, where Nichole picked up her love of fashion from an early age.
"I think my mum was a big influence because she was always very well dressed," she says. "She used to wear clothes that were very fitted and tailored. She looked good."
Nichole, the second of three sisters, spent her entire school life in Wigston, where her parents, Lesley and Graham, still live, moving from Little Hill to Bushloe to Guthlaxton. She then went on to study contour fashion at De Montfort University.
"I’ve always been fascinated by couture and contour offered a course that was so specialised, creating products made for the body, which was really appealing to me. It was three years of solid training and it gave me the skills I needed when it came to setting up my own business, as well as the confidence to make products that fitted well."
Nichole left with a first class degree and a graduate collection that would eventually form the basis for some of the pieces she sells today. But before setting out on her own, she needed to gain experience in the industry.
Her first job? Alexander McQueen, in London.
"That gave me a sound knowledge of how to take that core product - my training was really lingerie, swimwear and corsetry - into a more ready-to-wear outfit. It was about starting from the inside out. That was a fascinating environment to work in because it was quite a big team of designers. Because my training was quite specialised, I was asked to produce anything that was corset based, which was great."
Nichole moved from McQueen to Donna Karan, in New York, and from there to Pleasure State, a lingerie brand that was up-and-coming at the time.
She made the decision because she knew the move from a huge design house to a small company would give her an insight into all the different aspects of running a business.
"When I went to work there they had 16 employees, all in one room. I wanted to work in that environment - working with press, marketing, sales and accounts, with the MD sitting next to us. You could really get a grasp of what everyone did and how a company grows. I think that was important."
Nichole de Carle, the label, started in 2009. Without wads of cash behind her, she set up a makeshift studio in her one-bed London flat and spent the cash she did have on a membership to a private club.
"I started with my strength, which was design, so I made part of my bedroom into a studio. Everything happened in one room. I was working out of the members club, The Hospital, in Covent Garden, in order to meet the right clientele - rather than paying for a studio, I paid for that."
It was a shrewd move.
"I had my graduate collection and I would show those designs and start to create pieces from that, tailored to what women wanted to wear. I had a really good understanding of the type of customers I wanted and joining the club was the best way of reaching them, as I had limited resources. To build buzz around the brand I formed a relationship with Fashion TV. I put on shows in Cannes for the film festival, in Miami for the polo world cup, I did a bit in Monaco. I think at that stage it was a matter of trying to get the brand name out there. Shows were aired globally. I invested in a website, making sure we could manage requests from all over the world, and sales increased from there."
Eventually, there was too much work for Nichole to complete on her own.
"I hired a machinist and moved into a very small studio space in Chelsea," she says. "I got a good rate and that’s where a lot of clients were, so it was important that they could come and see me.
"I hired a head of sales to drive sales further and developed a line that was available to sell at trade shows. Now, we have a network of agents who sell the brand across Europe, North America and the Middle East. The PR we manage internally."
By 2012, Nichole de Carle had outgrown the small studio space in Chelsea.
"We moved to a space in Wimbledon, where we are now. I set up a manufacturing company parallel to the brand in 2012, and that offers a service to other brands now as well.
"We’ve now got six machinists and the space we’ve got allows us to create special pieces for private clients, fast fashion for key accounts, like Selfridges, and be able to service celebrities as well. For celebrity requests for performances, we don’t usually have long to turn them around. The most time we’ve had is four days; we sometimes get as little as 48 hours. We deliver it quickly and the feedback has been good. I think that’s why we’ve had so many celebrities coming back to the brand."
Nicole Scherzinger, she says, is exactly as you would imagine: "Shamazing, and all that, just like she is on TV."
Most of the celebrities who wear the brand share similar traits, she says, even if they have different styles.
"What’s interesting about all the celebrities who wear the product, generally they share the same... I wouldn’t say characteristics but they’re all very confident women and quite independent. Generally, that goes for most of our private clients as well. Paloma Faith is confident and independent, but her style is very alternative, whereas Nicole Sherzinger is also a show-woman - confident and independent - but her style is very different."
There are 12 employees in the Nichole de Carle office now, and they all like to wear the brand.
"We’ve got a female dominated office and we all wear the products. It’s the same for us, too. We all have different styles, we’re all different sizes, we all like different parts of the collection, but we style the pieces in different ways."
If you’re thinking it might be hard to style underwear in public, given that it’s usually hidden, think again. Nichole is wearing one of her creations, "the brief and braces, a key piece," with the brace element worn over her nude body top.
She talks me through the other pieces on display at London Fashion Week.
"This is our latest collection, so it’s an overview of different lines. Black Label is our absolute top line, it's very tailored and we use very different and well-sourced fabrics - that goes for everything.
It’s our main celebrity line."
Nichole’s designs are very structured, with lots of lines and straps.
"They’re really easy, though," she says. "It all looks quite complicated but it’s easy to wear. That’s probably why the range is such an attraction for performers, as they have to get in and out of things quickly."
The most expensive piece, the piece that went for just under £10,000, was a bespoke set for a private client, who wanted it covered in diamonds. Then there’s the soirée line, which is "really soft and feminine," not quite as strong or bold as the signature line.
"This is the core of the collection. It’s very strong, very Art Deco."
It’s where Nichole started, back at De Montfort University.
"This piece was part of my graduate collection," she says, pulling out a body with a dream catcher on the back.
"The signature brief with braces is a key piece - you can wear it as a bedroom piece or style it."
Nichole no longer sits at the machine herself, but the designs are all hers. She is inspired by architecture, she says, adding that this is not as strange as it might sound.
"The design is very much based on how an architect would create a building," she says. "Lingerie you have to design for function. You can develop most beautiful piece but if it doesn’t hold everything in the right place it’s not going to work. It’s about engineering. You know, the first man who designed the bra was an aeroplane designer."
The architectural element is what makes Nichole’s designs recognisable, and it’s certainly paid off. The brand has come a long way in five years.
"It’s nice to see the business growing," she says. "It’s not been easy. I built this from scratch and there’s been a lot of hard work involved. I wouldn’t have done it any other way, though, because you learn so much more through taking that journey.
"I don’t think you can interview for a position if you haven’t done that job yourself, or at least had some experience of it or some understanding how it works. I’m very hard on myself and I’ve lost count of how many hours I work in a day."
When she gets time, Nichole will head back to Wigston to see her family.
"I love coming back. It’s home, isn’t it? It’s a part of you so you never lose it and never want to. As a family we like to do things like go for a walk at Bradgate Park or just chill at my mum and dad’s house, go for Sunday lunch in the local pub. I don’t go out in Leicester very often but when I do it’s always a lot of fun. Leicester is constantly changing."
Nichole tries to time her visits to coincide with seeing older sister Michelle, a physiotherapist who still lives in Wigston, and younger sister Charlotte, a model, also living in London, who has enjoyed her own taste of fame thanks to work with Vogue and a television appearance on reality show Dirty Sexy Things.
And yes, Nichole has utilised her younger sister’s talents when it comes to promoting her designs.
"She models for me all the time," she says, holding up a picture on her phone. "It’s good to have a sister like that. She’s an absolute star. My next step for her is to try and get her on I’m a Celeb. I really think she’d win it."
Michelle is the one who "didn’t go off the rails," she jokes, while Charlotte is "a bit mad".
They’re a close family.
"My older sister is the one who grounds everyone. Charlotte is one to watch in what she does - she’s always completely honest, even if it’s inappropriate.
"And, she looks great. I keep mine on, she takes hers off. That’s how it works in our family."
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