Nanette Lepore
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Known for her feminine style and fine detailing, Nanette Lepore makes ultra-chic clothes that are at the same time easy to wear. She created her first couture look as a nine-year-old, when she outfitted a neighbor in a gypsy bedspread/dashiki with beaded choker. A native of Ohio, Lepore never missed her family's annual road trips along California's Route 66, which made Nanette feel like "a little gypsy" and provided her with a lifelong taste for travel. This wandering spirit eventually landed Lepore in New York, where she pursued a design degree at the Fashion Institute of Technology. But the respectability of a degree did nothing to quell the designer's gypsy vibe, which remains prevalent in her creations. Lepore continues to expand her horizons, having opened a boutique in Los Angeles and launched a fragrance in 2004.
On her business
"I never had big plans, and when I think back on it, I'm amazed it worked, it lasted, I stuck with it. Most of it is because I'm really, really stubborn. That's how I've lasted, like, 16 years in business. It's been that long since it was a tiny little boutique to a three-person company. It just grew so slowly that it happens and you don't even realize it's happening."
