14 KARAT LIVING

It’s in the jeans

January 20th, 2012 | Liz Gold

Disclaimer: The original version of this interview caused a bit of trouble because of the information it disclosed – even though it was accurate. I believe it’s still a good profile, even without those bits and so it has been edited accordingly.

Just four months into her new senior designer gig at an American sportswear line, Nora Iknadossian has a big project on her hands – to create a denim line for men. And she’s loving every minute of it.

“I wear men’s clothes, I like men’s clothes and I like the way men dress so this has been awesome,” Iknadossian said over a snack of jalapeno SunChips and Doritos in her Williamsburg apartment. “My whole background is in women’s clothes. My career has taken a complete loop and I’m enjoying it so much.”

Nora and the darling, Papa

Growing up in Pasadena, California, Iknadossian always had her hands in art – drawing on, as she describes, “everything and everywhere. That was one thing I really loved and one thing I was really good at and wouldn’t stop doing.” Her mom was supportive, her dad wasn’t – instead of art school to study fine arts and mixed media he wanted her to take over his dry cleaning business.

“I was like, fuck that, no,” she said “Hell no. None of us have gone to college so I want to go. My father was like, ‘you’re not going to make any money.’ So I said, ‘I’ll go into fashion.’”

Despite the resistance, it turns out her upbringing did help her case. Her mom did the alterations in her father’s dry cleaning business and Iknadassian often played around on her sewing machines – so she was always around garment.

After graduating from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles with a degree in Fashion Design, she hightailed it to New York, following a couple of friends, with just a box of her belongings. Eight weeks later broke, depressed and without a job – she moved back to California.

Luckily, before she had left the west coast, she secured a job at St. John Knits who not only wished her well on her New York journey but told her the job would be there if she decided to come back.

“Amazing, I know,” she admitted. “So I got a lot of experience there and two years into it, New York was eating me alive. I needed to go back to conquer the city. So I did.”

Funding her trip with insurance money (her car got stolen) Iknadossian headed back to the east coast and interviewed at DKNY a week later, committing to an apartment over the phone.

Of course, coming from California, she hated her apartment because she thought it was tiny.

“But in fact it was beautiful and perfect, a two-story duplex on the Upper East Side with a garden. Compared to California standards it’s a hole in the wall,” she said laughing.

Iknadossian started freelancing for DKNY before she was hired permanently for the domestic Liz Claiborne (now known as Fifth & Pacific Companies). She stayed there for three years with a focus on woven and denim and then went to the international line – going from associate to senior designer over the course of seven years.

Some of Iknadossian's personal designs.

“It was just so awesome,” Iknadossian said of that time. “But internationally the company was doing really bad. I loved what we were doing and I would have never had left but a lot of positions got tweaked, they got rid of a lot of overhead and replaced them.”

The company had decided to move the operations over to Singapore without a real option for many on the team to follow.

“It was like, ‘we’re moving and if you want to go, let us know and we’ll think about it.’”

Iknadossian instead chose to go back to freelance, working for the Finnish company Marimekko designing outerwear and as design director for Bagatelle International in New York.

At Bagatelle, Iknadossian was working for a bunch of brands which for her, was not ideal.

“I missed being in an organized, collections-based, calendar-driven, one-company type of environment and know day-to-day what’s happening,” she said.

So she started looking around, landed an interview with her current design company and was hired full-time a month later.

Though it wasn’t as easy as it sounds.  A lot of design companies require candidates to produce a project as part of the interview process. And this round wasn’t any different.

“Sometimes you won’t get hired if you are not on the same page,” Iknadossian said. “They will give you an assignment and say ‘give me a collection for fall/winter – eight pieces – flats, fabrication, color story and mood board.’ It’s intense and annoying. And then they want you to present it.”

Iknadossian said she draws her inspiration from everywhere – her travels, daily life, old vintage photographs of women corseting, blogs and magazines.

A few more ...

“I like to design outfits because I like to see everything together,” she said. “My favorite designer in the whole wide world is Maria Cornejo. I wear her stuff all the time; she just knows just how to cut the best silhouette for every body type. The fabrication she chooses is not too sheer, it’s not too heavy, it’s perfect. So someone like her, I design the way I like to dress.”

Do you have plans to design your own line?

“Yes. Absolutely. But I want it to be plus size. I am really into doing the inbetween – size 10s to the 20s. It doesn’t exist. I am the inbetween girl. So many brands I go to where size 12s are not size 12s and then you’re like, ‘OK let me get a 14 and you’re like this is really a size 20.’ It’s so inconsistent. There is a really nice website I go to called Asos but again they are curvy. No company is the same, every company does their own thing. They are like, ‘let’s make the size 27 a 26 so the 27 girl can feel skinny.’ They make their sizes smaller so everybody is like ‘OMG I bought a 26.’ But it’s a big lie. They do it to make girls feel better.”

What kind of line do you want to design and where are you in that process?

I started sketching, getting inspiration, getting the name together and networking. Then I got really into this new job. I got sidetracked and really into it and started a new relationship and I’m really loving that. Plus I moved into a new apartment. I’ve been having fun. I’m thinking about it and it’s going to happen because I want it to happen and because I believe in it. I want it to be affordable. I want it to be fucking hot.

What would you sell?

It’s going to be high-end sportswear – not focused on denim. Like day to evening clothes – something you can wear to work and look really great in and then throw some really hot heels on and a really great coat and you can go to a nice dinner. I want it to be all around versatile and have good fabric that’s machine washable. I want to start e-commerce and do it online. I know it’s hard for plus size women to find clothes that fit their body types. I want to have models and their body measurements online with the outfit they have on. Like a woman who’s a 14 she’ll have her waist, bust and hip measurement online so you can compare her body with your body and see how it hangs on her. We won’t have a size six body photographed in a plus size clothing line which is what they do sometimes.

Do you think the industry is getting better?

I think there’s definitely more conversation. I have been seeing a lot more press and I’m a little obsessed about researching the plus size models and plus sized industry because it’s so refreshing. Younger women are happier being a little bit bigger. A lot of older women are comfortable being big and plus sized because we’ve been through an evolution and growth. Kids haven’t – they get bullied, they get crap, they get so much shit. I was a fat kid. It’s so hard and it’s so fucked up. I’m happy to see representation of bigger girls on movie screens and television. Very happy about that.

If people know it gets so much buzz and support when they bring on a plus size model, why wouldn’t more people do that?

The truth is some companies don’t want to be associated with that, they only want thin girls to buy their clothes or their clothes to be on thin people.

Wow that’s intense.

It’s true. They will cut their size to only a 10, they refuse to do 12 and 14.

Which companies are like that?

Stella McCartney. Oh tons. I love Celine. Like Balenciaga – can’t find a big size there. Can’t find big clothes at Rag & Bone. Acne - forget it, you can’t find big clothes there. They don’t want overweight people representing their clothes. Because we’re walking advertisements. Why would they want that?

Have you seen more designers emerging that want to create a line for real women?

I don’t think it’s really happening. Only Lane Bryant and Avenue.

They are matronly. So you have a market.

I know!

What are some other designers that you like?

Rick Owens. He’s another one where you can’t fit into anything but he is so brilliant.

What would you never be caught dead wearing?

Roberto Cavalli. Jeremy Scott – he’s funny. I like his sense of humor but I wouldn’t wear his stuff.

Favorite websites?

I follow other blogs like Simple Threads, which is this guy who wears very authentic classic clothing, very Americana, very tailored, fine, fine details. I love his blog. Not just clothing but daily life stuff. His journal. His key chain. I love the way he photographs, they way he talks about things. He has to believe in it to wear it. Design Sponge. I go there for stupid Martha Stewart stuff.

Follow Nora Iknadossian on Tumblr at noradossi.tumblr.com.