CANVAS REBEL Feature: Meet Nisha Inalsingh

Press Release Feature, December 25, 2023 -- Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nisha Inalsingh. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below. 

Nisha, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Innovation comes in all shapes, sizes and across all industries, so we’d love to hear about something you’ve done that you feel was particularly innovative.

Innovation comes in many forms. It can be a physical product, a service or something that combines many things old to produce something new. For me, it’s the latter. I’ve been working all of my adult life in marketing and found myself in what seemed to me at the time disparate jobs – advertising, shoot production (digital, tv and print), casting and account management. Not one to rest on my laurels, I find myself curious about how I can keep growing and learning. I fell in love with Iceland and decided to do a documentary on the hidden people which captured my imagination while visiting a friend. I went on to write, produce and direct my Icelandic documentary, Huldufolk 102, which played in 12 countries around the world.

The pandemic hit in 2020 and like most people it felt right to make a career pivot and try something new. I decided to follow my passion for fashion and create my own line, Nish Niche, which embodied my ideals and views of the world. This doesn’t sound earth shattering or particularly innovative, but for me it was. I was not a designer but had lots of ideas. I also realized that my entire career which I thought was disparate was, in fact, a culmination of everything I needed to launch Nish Niche. All those experiences came together to help what would become the most innovative thing I’ve done to date. There’s still so much to learn and I look forward to see how this all unfolds as I move forward.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Nish Niche is a small, contemporary atelier designing sophisticated and timeless clothes in the heart of New York City. We make small batch, limited production pieces so everything sold is a unique piece of art. As a result of our process our collections embody our passion for creating stand-out pieces that are luxurious, easy-to-wear and enduring.

Our designs fuse together our love of Asian and Scandinavian aesthetics. Asia’s rich, colorful history and gorgeous textiles are complementary with the Scandinavian approach to design – minimal, elegant and pure. Our choice in fabrics from typewriter cotton to organic silk, allows us to design with elegant details and use both modern and ancient techniques. This combination makes our silhouettes effortless, sophisticated with universal appeal – something for everyone. The fit is relaxed so easy to wear and good for all ages.

We are proud that all of our clothes are manufactured in NYC where our design team including myself are present at every stage of the development and production process. We are passionate about what we send out into the world!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Launching Nish Niche and learning every single aspect of design and manufacturing has been a most humbling and enlightening experience. You think everything is under control and you learn from mistakes from the previous collection, but inevitably, something new thing goes wrong. For example, we bought sample fabric to start working on a new collection. As usual it took awhile to get the perfect samples and when we went to order the production quantities from the mill they were out-of-stock for one of our main dresses with no plans to replenish. There was nothing similar we could source immediately and we had a photoshoot locked and loaded. It seemed like the end of the world but we eventually found a similar fabric and finished production. We delayed our launch of that collection which at the time seemed terrible but in retrospect it was all ok. I’ve been told many times now that this kind of thing is par for the course. I’ve gotten smarter now and only order samples that we know there is plenty of stock available but as in life, there will always be another hurdle to jump.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

Nish Niche has manufactured every collection in NYC and it’s something we are proud of as it gives us the greatest quality control from development through manufacturing. We have finally partnered with a manufacturer that is a perfect fit for our artisanal, luxury brand, but it was not easy to get there. Our first collection had us us pounding the streets of the garment district speaking to many manufacturers to see who would work with us and also who we could afford. Some were too expensive per item and others had very high minimums. Not many people were interested and looking back I realize it’s amazing we got it done as we only had sketches – our website could not launch until we had professional images of the collection! We moved on from our first manufacturer once launched but went to someone who did not have the quality levels we were looking for. They did a good job in the end, but under intense pressure from us to get it right. We went thru many samples to finally get to the perfect samples for production. We then moved on to our current manufacturer – the team we are working with now. They strike the perfect balance of quality, ingenuity and minimums for us.