Fashion and style according to Nina Garcia

Global style icon Ninotchka “Nina” Garcia, creative director of Marie Claire and formidable judge of the hit reality TV show Project Runway, once tweeted, “Style is a deeply personal expression of who you are, and every time you dress, you are asserting a part of yourself.” Indeed, style is a big part of Nina’s life. The 20-year veteran of the fashion industry has worked with influential photographers, models and designers in the world including Michael Kors, Alexander Wang, Miuccia Prada, Tom Ford, Stella McCartney, Hedi Slimane and Raf Simons. She is a recipient of the 2010 Oracle Award organized by the NGO Fashion Group International (FGI).

Born and raised in Barranquilla, Colombia, Nina grew up with stylish parents. According to Nina, her mother had an enormous collection of wardrobe in her closet which she would lock and nobody could go inside without her permission. She had her hair done everyday and she would not leave their house without wearing a lipstick. Her father only wore white linen pants and white guayaberas (linen shirts from Cuba). Their family loved traveling to various countries like Japan, India, France and Italy.

At a young age, Nina was obsessed with fashion and magazines. She would cut out photos of jewels, shoes, bags and made collages out of them. She was sent to the US by her parents when she was 15 years old to study. She graduated with a liberal arts degree from Boston University and later attended the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Nina’s meteoric rise to the top can be traced back in the early ’90s when she started her career in the fashion industry working in the public relations department of Perry Ellis under its former designer Marc Jacobs. She then moved to the women’s magazine Mirabella where she worked as an assistant stylist and marketing editor. Later, she joined Elle and became its fashion director in 2000. She left her post in 2008 and transferred to Marie Claire where she is currently the creative director.

The style guru who used to avoid the spotlight (preferring to work behind the scenes) became a reluctant star when she crossed over to television with Project Runway, a show that pits aspiring fashion designers against each other for a whopping $100,000 to begin a fashion line. Nina once told BuzzFeed Fashion, “There was nothing like Project Runway at the time. I remember when those producers came in and said, ‘We want to do a show on fashion.’ I was like, ‘Who is going to be interested?’ And there have been so many people interested.”

Adding to her sterling list of credentials is being a New York Times best-selling author of four books on style: The Little Black Book of Style (2007), The One Hundred (2008), The Style Strategy (2009) and Nina Garcia’s Look Book (2010).

I had the honor of meeting Nina twice when she recently visited the country for the Philippine Fashion Week. I was the moderator of the style forum, Jag Origins Inside Creative Minds where Nina was the special guest. I also interviewed her for the Ikaw Na segment of Bandila where she talked about style, career and fame.

In one of our interviews, I asked her the difference between fashion and style because they are often used interchangeably. She explained, “Fashion is an expression of a time, of a place, of history. It’s putting things into context. Style is really very personal. It’s kind of timeless. Style is really about how you put yourself together. It’s something very personal. Fashion is just an interpretation of the culture around us.”

So if style is indeed personal, why are we even talking about it? “Because it communicates. It does communicate, the way you put yourself together. It’s almost like a language without words. It’s the first thing you see so it can communicate something. Style is a journal. If you look back in history of the women who are most memorable and most stylish, they were never the followers of fashion. They were the ones who were unique in their style, breakers of the rules. They were authentic, genuine, original. They were not following the trends.”

Nina talked about women empowerment in her book The Style Strategy when she said, “We’re survivalists, we’re nurturers, we’re women.” She has so much confidence as a woman of the 21st century. She enthused, “We can have families, we can have jobs and we’re very good at it. We can juggle so many things. We are survivalists because we keep the family and that’s where it all starts.”

She is undoubtedly a supermom. Despite her frenzied schedule, Nina takes time to be with her two sons Lucas and Alex. “Time is the biggest luxury and time with my kids is what I cherish most,” she once told Michael Kors in an interview.

Nina shared what she learned from Project Runway that she didn’t learn from magazines. “The show is really a microcosm of what happens in the real world. It is that tough, it is that cutthroat. It’s either you make it or you don’t make it. It just gave me more empathy for the designers who are the creators. It is more upfront. It’s more condensed. It’s more there. I see it. Obviously, in my everyday work, I run across many designers. They are living in real life. But here, I see it repeatedly and I see it so closely. I have more empathy for them.”

Despite her stellar stature in the fashion industry, Nina admitted that she still feels queasy with fame. “I don’t think of myself as being famous. I just do my job. I like to do my job. I’m passionate with what I do. I stepped into the TV thing by accident. It’s been wonderful. It’s a wonderful program. But I still love what I do. I love the magazine world. I love the business.”

On the lighter side, I asked her which designer she would bring along when she enters the Pearly Gates. She replied Alexander McQueen. “Because what he did is so beautifully feminine. It was heavenly. When he went feminine, when he went soft, it was just ethereal.” Staying true to her reputation, Nina wants to be in Paris and wear haute couture on her last night on earth.

She described her personal style as “streamlined.” How would you describe a woman styled by Nina Garcia? “High, comfortable heels. Probably wearing a jacket. Pants. White crisp shirt. A beautiful accessory. That’s it. Very simple, streamlined. To the point. Strong.”