Nicholas Graham

Graham bought a sewing machine at a church auction in rural Alberta when he was 16 and, with the assistance of Elizabeth Sebbelov, he taught himself how to sew. Graham cites ‘Biz Biz’ as she is known, as inspiring him to first make clothes.[4]

After graduating high school, he traveled to Europe and spent six months living on the island of Naxos in Greece, creating simple dresses for the tourist trade. After Greece, he lived in Stockholm and London where he continued to explore the design, fashion and art world.[4]

Graham returned to Canada in 1979, settling in Vancouver where he created the company “Electricity Design” with his partner Maria Goldinger, producing futuristic architectural clothing, and became a staple of the dynamic arts and music scene.[4][3]

Graham and Goldinger moved to San Francisco in 1980, and started a neckwear and accessory company called "Summ," a variation on the name of Howard Hughes's company Summa. Their involvement in the punk and new-wave movements inspired his alternative design and marketing instincts.[4][3]

They operated Summ out of their San Francisco loft, manufacturing skinny neckties, selling them to local specialty stores as well as Macy's San Francisco. The Macy's buyer liked the fabrics the company was producing, and asked them to make some underwear using them. Macy's was the first customer to order the product, and Joe Boxer was born. Producing and silk-screening the underwear out of Graham's loft, Boxer quickly caught on in the Bay Area, and expanded nationally in the late 1980s.[4][3]

In 1990 Graham won the Woolmark award for menswear, and in 1991 The Earnie Award for Children's Wear. Graham was accepted into the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1991, and the same year co-hosted the “7th on Sixth” AIDS fundraiser in San Francisco with Donna Karan. Graham has continued to support charitable causes throughout his career.[4]

1997, Joe Boxer closed New York fashion week in Reykjavík, Iceland, flying in 200 fashion editors for a 48-hour extravaganza including horseback rides, cocktails with the president, and a fashion show for 2000 people at an abandoned airline hanger in the heart of the city. The company also launched “Fashion Targets Breast Cancer” Iceland initiative in conjunction with the CFDA. The show opened with 200 Icelandic choir children, and included sheep, salmon, fisherman, and ended with 13 Santa Clauses and a gigantic Ice Princess. The show was the first ever live-stream of a fashion event sponsored by Microsoft.[5]

Nicholas Graham purchased the title Lord of Balls in 1998 from the Manorial Society of Great Britain for $4,000.[6]

After operating at department store channels until 2002, Windsong and Graham decided to license the brand directly to Kmart Corporation in Detroit. Graham continued to be involved with the company until 2005 when it was sold to Iconix Brand Group in New York. Iconix continued the license with Kmart where the brand remains today.[5]

Once the Iconix transaction closed, Graham started a new company called “Wonderbrand” out of San Francisco, and developed products for many multichannel retailers around the United States. The company successfully launched four brands in 7000 stores within 18 months. At the same time, Graham was hired by the JCPenney Company as a design consultant for their private label businesses. He also started “Nick- it”, a menswear collection at JCPenney geared towards young men, which was a precursor for his current Nick Graham brand.[7]

In 2007 Graham staged an event called Random Acts of Politeness for “7th on Sixth Fashion Week” to promote “Nick-it” at JCPenney, where in he dressed twenty men in suits and bowler hats and who were assigned the sole mission of being nice to New Yorkers in Times Square.[7]

In 2008, Graham became Mens design director for Delta Galil, an underwear company based in Israel, and spent two years helping Delta develop men's underwear products in many multichannel retailers.[7]

In 2009 Graham teamed up Goodwill Industries in San Francisco and developed a line of repurposed clothing under the brand name “William Good”. Graham and his designers would take clothing from Goodwill and redesign it into couture one a kind pieces.[7]

In 2012, Graham moved to New York City from San Francisco and began developing the idea for his current Nick Graham collection.[8] The brand launched online in December 2013, and expanded into department stores in October 2014. The same month Iconix Brand Group invested in the company, and continues to be a shareholder today. Later the brand expanded in over 3000 stores in the United States, and is known for its leadership in men's design and fashion.[9][10]