New York fashion designer Nicole Miller is known for taking traditional, elegant, figure-loving styles and endowing them with a bit of the unusual. Her spring line includes the liberal use of black and white -- in some cases, black and white infused with other colors -- as well as tropical prints and sleek, warm-weather solids.
Miller and her creations were the highlight of the 2015 Bolo Bash fundraiser for Baptist Health. The event took place April 8 in the J.A. Gilbreath Conference Center at Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock.
Event chairman Terry Snowden offered remarks prior to the meal prepared by chef Len Thompson: grilled Gulf shrimp and chicken salad, with a variety of gourmet trimmings and breads. After lunch and a short preview fashion show of Miller creations, master of ceremonies Lisa Fischer, radio personality for KURB-FM, 98.5, sat down with Miller to pick her brain.
What inspires her designs?
"Every year it's different," Miller replied. "Some years I'm inspired by a photograph; or sometimes I am inspired by a movie. And sometimes I'm inspired by a trip" to places such as Rio ... a vibe that shows up in a number of her spring pieces.
What's changed about fashion shows since her first one?
"A lot of the models now are more unusual looking," she noted. "And they don't smile."
Fischer recalled the old-school supermodels such as Christie Brinkley and concluded that models smiled back in Brinkley's day because they ate carbohydrates. These live mannequins of the 21st century? "When you're that hungry, you have nothing to smile about."
The runway show then got going again, with Miller and Fischer discussing each ensemble before yielding the floor for closing remarks by Troy Wells, president and chief executive officer for Baptist Health.
Bolo Bash raised $212,000, according to Cara Wade, director of communications for Baptist. The money will be used for the expansion of the pre- and post-operative surgery area of the Little Rock medical center.
High Profile on 04/19/2015