Local expo brings 'Project Runway' star
Local expo brings 'Project Runway' star
Most memorable as a competitor on the second season of the Bravo TV reality show, “Project Runway,” the LA-based designer now continues on the catwalk of success in a variety of roles, including teacher and fashion insider — and he plans to share some of that expertise during a visit to Bakersfield April 28.
Verreos said he looks forward to dishing about his experience on “Project Runway,” which will air its fourth season in the fall, and give advice to aspiring fashion designers as part of the Unique Image Design’s “Look & Feel Your Best Expo,” noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 28, at the Rabobank Convention Center.
“I’ll be talking about the realities of the industry and giving a lot of information you won’t get anywhere else,” he said.
Except maybe what you saw during his stint on “Project Runway.”
Verreos became an instant hit during the second season’s run with his irresistible fashion flair and magnetic personality, that made him a standout against other castmates. Verreos made it to the fifth round of competition before being eliminated.
But, like other reality stars, “Project Runway” landed Verreos numerous opportunities, including a gig as a 2006 Winter Olympic “fashion” commentator in Torino, Italy during the figure-skating competitions.
“I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? You want me to talk about figure skating costumes?’ ” he said.
And the offers kept coming.
Verreos landed a contract with Windsor dresses to design a prom dress line bearing his name, as well as a request from Desperate Housewives’ actress, Brenda Strong, who needed a gown for the Screen Actors Guild Awards red carpet.
Not bad for a man who spent his childhood traveling the world with his U.S. State Department diplomat/Greek-American father and Venezuelan mother and sketching art along the way.
“Ever since I was young, I was always sketching,” said the 40-year-old, politically-conscious fashionista. “Growing up, we were always traveling, and I just drew airplanes. I was 4-years-old, and my mom has all the sketchbooks to prove it.”
His bicultural background has also kept him in tune with designing wares that accentuate a classic size-2 waif runway model to a fuller, curvier Latina and Greek woman, who want to see themselves in a Nikolaki design — Verreos’ clothing line.
“I think about that when I design a lot of my garments and dresses because I’ve worked with a lot of body types, and I’m a good listener,” said Verreos, who is currently teaching classes at the prestigious Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles (FIDM). “I always get asked about sizes for bigger girls. I can make them, but it’s up to the stores to buy them. It’s not our fault.”
Verreos is the oldest of two siblings. His sister, Rita, is a former Miss Venezuela pageant finalist.
Spending a good portion of his life in the air, aboard planes, he vividly remembers his earliest childhood fashion project: flight attendant uniforms.
“I would literally sit for hours on my bed, with my sketchbook and pencil, and draw uniform collections for every airline … Pan Am, TWA,” he said. “It was late ‘70s, early ‘80s, so, of course, they would be modernized.”
Adding with a laugh, “but I don’t think they could be serving dinner in the outfits that I put my flying divas in.”
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Verreos spent his formative years in Caracas, Venezuela, attending Catholic school, growing up among other government stationed families, and becoming enriched with colorful Mediterranean culture.
“My earliest memories are how beautiful Caracas was to me, and how lucky I was to be raised there,” he said. “It really made an impression and has taken a hold of who I am.”
Traditions celebrated with his family are among some of his fondest memories.
“I remember all the piñata parties that my mom would throw. When I hear the cuatro (a guitar familiar in Carribean music,) and the traditional Venezuelan folk songs, I get nostalgic,” he said. “I even get tear-eyed every time I hear the Venezuelan national anthem.”
Enjoying the privileges of life in the diplomatic corps during the pre-Hugo Chavez presidential era, thinking outside the box for young minds was encouraged, but as the political climate became stormy in Venezuela, Verreos’ father brought the family back to the states and life in San Francisco when Verreos was 10 years-old.
“I think my dad could see what was brewing politically, but he also felt we were ready to have an American upbringing,” he said. “Not to get political, but I guess I am. I have been back many times, and it’s sad to see how the poverty has gotten worse, knowing how much oil wealth is in the country.”
With a keen sense of international politics through his father’s nurturing, Verreos’ interest in art continued to evolve as well. However, for a boy in a Greek / Latino household, he didn’t feel confident enough to express his desire to pursue fashion school.
“I had a feeling that fashion wouldn’t be a real job, and that I might not make my Greek dad proud,” he said. “As it was, I was completely wrong about that.”
Driven, but suppressing his true passion, Verreos’ successfully completed a degree in political science from UCLA in 1991. Verreos laughs at how the topics of most of his conversations never matched the curriculum during college studies.
“I would be at my atmospheric science class at UCLA, and I would be discussing whole couture collections, and my friends would turn to me and say, ‘Umm, Nick, maybe you’re in the wrong school.’ ”
He was. After college, Verreos finally gave in to his first love, immediately enrolling in fashion school at FIDM, one of the top fashion schools in LA.
“The fashion institute had a special one-year program for those with a degree that was very intense,” he said. “I knew art and how to sketch, but where I lacked was in technical skills. I had no experience in sewing and the construction of the garments.”
Honing the craft that would help make him a future in fashion, Verreos graduated from FIDM in 1993, having mild success as a new face on the scene. Making trips to Switzerland and Paris to study the blueprint techniques of international design, he then returned to LA, learning the ropes as a design assistant, pattern maker, draper, stylist and eventually his own line.
“It wasn’t until 2001 that I decided to start my own line of clothing, Nikolaki, which means ‘Little Nick,’ in Greek,” he said. “As anxious as I was after school, I didn’t want to start my own line. Some of the students that I graduated with did it, and they failed to a year later. That was just a catalyst to wait.”
That patience paid off when a show by Bravo TV called “Project Runway” debuted in 2004, becoming a huge hit all over the world. Verreos recalls seeing the show for the first time, and being skeptical about the competition.
“I watched the first season, and to my surprise, they did it right,” he said. “I didn’t think I was one of those people on the show, but I started getting calls from magazine editors and people in the industry that said I would be perfect for this.”
So he went for it.
“I auditioned for ‘Project Runway’ as a dare,” he said. “I told the producers that I’ve been raising my hand for awhile and it shouldn’t take for me to be on the show for people to know that I’m good, but I was getting lost in a sea of high-end collections that have money.”
When asked about his design inspiration, he looks no further than his family.
“My sister, Rita, is one muse I have,” he said. “I just think of a sexy, confident, Mediterranean woman with a tan, and just gorgeous.”
Meet Nick Verreos from "Project Runway"
-Unique Image Design's "Look & Feel Your Best Expo"
-When: Noon to 5pm, Saturday, April 28 2007
-Where: Rabobank Convention Center
-Cost: $10
-For more info: (661) 327-7299
-Web: www.uniquedesign.com
*Originally printed in Mas Magazine, Vol. 2, Issue 32, April 20, 2007
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