Nicole Richie chatted with
WWD about fashion, family and more.
Here's her interview:
A delicate-looking cursive tattoo graces the inside of Nicole Richie�s left wrist. And although she isn�t one to volunteer personal details about her life, she obliges a bit hesitantly when asked for specifics.
Richie rolled her eyes, shrugged her shoulders and explained, �It says, �Virgin.� �
Any presumptions should stop there. Like much about her, there is more than what first appears. The tattoo, like the green hair she once had in high school and the party-girl prefix that used to accompany any tabloid reference to her name, is now a footnote of her past. The teenage trip to the tattoo parlor was a wink at her Virgo status. The zodiac reference is something she has long outgrown but has learned to live with.
During an hour-long interview in a sleepy cafe in Manhattan�s NoHo, Richie made it clear she won�t be labeled by the media or by her own doing. In New York to talk up the expansion of her two collections � House of Harlow 1960 and Winter Kate � she was clear-eyed and calm, pretty much never looking away. Although she readily talked about a recent girls� night dinner she hosted for 10 Nordstrom buyers at the Sunset Tower Hotel�s eatery and how much she likes cooking dinner for her family, she was less inclined to dish about her former stylist Rachel Zoe or once-fellow rabble-rouser Lindsay Lohan. (A publicist interjected more than once.) As for Lohan & Co., Richie said, �I just wish everybody happiness. Everyone has the right to be happy. Other than that, it�s really none of my business
In fairness to Richie, why would she want to delve into her nights spent clubbing? She did her time (however briefly, for one of two DUIs years ago) and has since moved on. She doesn�t spend her days relieved she is no longer lumped among the party girls. �I�m 29 right now, and I can look back at any stage in my life and say, �Oh, yeah, that was this stage, when I was seven or 13,� � she said. �It�s more just looking back and looking at different parts of your life. But that�s what growing up is. That�s what evolving into a woman or a man is.�
Perhaps most telling of her turnaround was how she recently lashed out at the paparazzi agency X-17 with a letter on her blog for stalking her daughter outside the child�s school. She and her companion, Joel Madden, front man for the band Good Charlotte, have two toddlers, daughter Harlow Winter Kate Richie-Madden and son Sparrow James Midnight Madden. Despite recent reports of a December wedding, Richie did not appear to be in any rush to wed her beau of four years, nor had she looked at wedding gowns. �That part I don�t know,� she said. �Right now we�re just so busy with work. Joel�s on tour and I�m here promoting the line. I�m in the middle of a book tour. Joel and I are hippies. We just kind of go with whatever.�
Asked what�s most challenging about being a working mother, she said, �Probably just wanting to be everywhere at one time.�
Richie, the adopted daughter of Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Lionel Richie, became a paparazzi target after teaming up with her childhood pal Paris Hilton for the reality show �The Simple Life,� which ran from 2003 to 2007. Her real life has proven to be anything but.
Within the past 16 months or so, her godfather, Michael Jackson, and former boyfriend DJ AM died. Last month, Kitson filed a lawsuit against Majestic Mills, the Canadian company that produces Richie�s collections. Kitson alleged that it lost more than $500,000 in profits because Richie was not required to make a personal appearance at the launch of Winter Kate clothing and House of Harlow 1960 shoes. The retailer also said it was forced to take markdowns to compete with other stores that bought the same goods at lower prices. Majestic Mills� president Rick Cytrynbaum declined to comment, as did Richie through a spokesman.
Clothing designer isn�t the only moniker she now wears; sunglasses and handbags will make their debut for spring and fall 2011, respectively. As author of �Priceless,� her second novel, which has just been released in the U.K., she is wrapping up a book tour. Richie is also back acting on NBC�s �Chuck.� Her musician tag includes proficiency in piano, violin and cello (the first she picked up at the age of three). Releasing an album on which she will handle the instrumentals and singing is on her to-do list, but that, along with developing cosmetics for her brands and a nonautobiographical sitcom she is crafting and hopes to star in and produce, for an undisclosed network, will have to wait.
As for keeping everything aligned, she said, �I�m just very good at scheduling.�I really try to not put too much on my plate. I like to give 110 percent to every single thing I�m doing. It�s important for me to start slow, to go slow and to really focus. I never take on more than two things at a time.�
After years of public scrutiny, Richie has zeroed in on fashion to make a go of her business. Interestingly, she said she never talked fashion with Jackson, her friends Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen (though she was quick to praise their Seventh Avenue success) or anyone else. �Spring �10 was my first collection � it was just something so new and it really was an experiment,� she said. �It really was me walking into the completely unknown. I was very hopeful, but you just never know in this business. Now that I am on my third collection, I�ve become so familiar with this world. I have been traveling all over the world, meeting with buyers, doing appearances and meeting my customers to get their feedback. Now I feel I know them very well, and I have been designing for them.�
However rushed shoppers can be from time to time, Richie said she likes making the rounds, as she has in Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, London, Paris, Montreal, Toronto and Seattle. Spring �11 is heavier on prints, since that�s what they asked for.
