Fashion Definitions — fashion history, brands and industry terms from Apparel Search
Nico Didonna, born on 5 August 1964 in Noicattaro, is an Italian fashion designer who moved to London during the 1980s and graduated from London College of Fashion with a degree in tailoring. He exhibited his first collection at the Islington design centre and went on to run his own shop while supplying individual boutiques worldwide, from Japan to America. His NICO-d men's fashion boutique in Soho opened in July 2004.
NICO-d is Nico Didonna's well established men's fashion boutique in the heart of London's swinging Soho. This stylish enterprise is proving a great success and has won tremendous acclaim since it opened in July 2004.
It is Nico's seasonal inspiration for each design which varies between projects, with all the product being hand manipulated in an artisanal workshop, a guarantee of total originality's part of the delight and charm of each garment following in the continuous collection of one-offs.
| The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nico_didonna 2/7/06 |
Designer Definition (from U.S Department of Labor)
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Didonna's training is specific: a degree in tailoring from London College of Fashion, earned after an Italian designer moved to London during the 1980s. Tailoring is the discipline of structured garment construction — pattern, fit, and the shaping of cloth to a body — and a degree in it gives a designer a technical foundation rather than only a sense of style. That foundation helps explain the way his later work is described. A designer trained in tailoring is equipped to manipulate garments by hand and to produce one-off pieces, because one-off work cannot rely on factory repetition; each garment has to be constructed on its own. His path also joins two countries: born in Noicattaro in Italy in 1964, trained in London, and exhibiting his first collection at the Islington design centre. The first exhibition is the step between education and business, the moment trained skill is first presented as a collection under his own name.
The defining production claim is that all the product is hand manipulated in an artisanal workshop, a guarantee of total originality, forming a continuous collection of one-offs. A one-off is a garment made once, not reproduced in a run, so the customer buys a piece that no one else owns in identical form. Hand manipulation means the cloth and garment are worked directly by hand, and an artisanal workshop is a small, craft-based workplace rather than a production line. His seasonal inspiration varies between projects, so the one-offs are not variations on a single repeated idea; each design takes its direction from that season's inspiration. The unique design and style of each individual garment has attracted clients across a wide spectrum — TV presenters and directors, footballers, artists and musicians — a clientele drawn from public-facing professions where an original garment has obvious value, since it will be seen and cannot be duplicated by a rival wearer.
Didonna has run his own shop while supplying individual boutiques worldwide, from Japan to America — two channels at once: direct retail under his own control, and wholesale placement in independent boutiques across distant markets. NICO-d, his well established men's fashion boutique in the heart of London's swinging Soho, opened in July 2004 and has won tremendous acclaim since. Soho is a fitting location for menswear built on originality, a district associated with individual style rather than department-store uniformity. The boutique concentrates his identity in one place — men's fashion, under the shortened NICO-d name — while the worldwide boutique supply spreads the same one-off approach internationally without diluting it into mass distribution.
The client list reinforces that positioning. TV presenters, directors, footballers, artists and musicians are all people whose clothing is seen publicly, but who do not belong to a single trade or uniform. A one-off garment suits such clients precisely because their image depends on looking individual; a mass-produced design worn by someone else on the same evening would defeat the purpose. Didonna's model - tailoring training, hand-manipulated production in an artisanal workshop, a Soho boutique for men, and supply to individual boutiques from Japan to America - is coherent from end to end. Every part of it favors small numbers, direct control and originality over volume, and the tremendous acclaim reported for NICO-d since July 2004 suggests that, within those limits, the model found an audience willing to value a garment that exists only once.
His first collection, exhibited at the Islington design centre, is the bridge between that training and that business. A graduate show or first exhibition is where a tailor's private skill becomes a public claim, judged by buyers and clients rather than teachers. Didonna's later structure - his own shop run with extreme professionalism alongside worldwide boutique supply - grew directly from that first presentation, keeping the designer present at every stage from construction to sale.
Nico Didonna was born on 5 August 1964 in Noicattaro, Italy. After moving to London during the 1980s, he graduated from London College of Fashion with a degree in tailoring.
NICO-d is Nico Didonna's men's fashion boutique in the heart of London's Soho. It opened in July 2004 and has won tremendous acclaim since opening.
All the product is hand manipulated in an artisanal workshop, a guarantee of total originality. His work forms a continuous collection of one-offs, with seasonal inspiration varying between projects.