NICOLE MILLER

risd connection: BFA in Apparel Design, 1973; honorary trustee

medium: apparel (a $60-million clothing, accessories and licensing empire)

talent: With 30 stores from California to Japan, Miller proves that spoofy, second-skin fashion is serious business; that physics and fashion go hand in hand (she was a math and science whiz kid); and that guys just wanna have fun, too (as in her boxer and bomber jacket lines).

getting there: How does an engineer’s daughter from the Berkshires end up taking Manhattan by storm? By having a fashion-conscious French mother, by ignoring her high school art teacher (“I don’t know, Nicole, maybe these people at RISD will see something I don’t…”) and by doing a draping stint in Paris, where she proves her point: her work is a technical knock-out. Before long, she’s in the Big Apple designing décolleté dinosaurs dresses, conversational ties and leopard-spotted golf skirts.

breaking in: It all comes together on 7th Avenue, with the design of the “perfect black party dress” and a partnership with former boss Bud Konheim, who dubs her queen of the “couture flea market.” In the late ‘80s, Konheim wonders what to do with a rack of deadbeat print dresses. Weeks later, the recycled silk print appears in whimsical tie form at the Metropolitan Museum Gift Shop, setting off the first big Nicole Miller craze.

making it: Alter a cut, twist a color, throw in a Harley, a martini glass, a few leopard spots and a penguin or two. Make it soft and stretchy and totally sexy. For over two decades the reportedly “mellow” 5’1“ red-head has plastered her pop-culture passions – from Gaudi to gaudy – all over the planet. The result: housewives in Omaha revere her; celebrities crave her; men collect her ties. You can spot her designs at the Oscars or in supermarkets (dresses start at under $200). And check out her newest spring look – “urban femininity.”

average day: … read through The New York Times on her Hudson River balcony… play with toddler son, Palmer… do a no-no: design a swimsuit with horizontal stripes… use pink in something… meet husband Kim Taipale for a late lunch …

discoveries:(1) “My husband doesn’t need me to pick out his clothes;” (2) Some of the best research can be done while sipping a martini at La Cirque; (3) “If I take Palmer to the studio I don’t get anything done.”