Fashion Your Seatbelt with Nellie Partow

It says something about a brand that when you click on the about page on its website to get the backstory on the designer, a YouTube video of her boxing in the center ring at Madison Square Garden pops up. Showing her winning her title fight in front of a sold-out crowd. If nothing else the footage clearly illustrates that designer Nellie Partow knows how to roll with the punches and has no intention of ever being down for the count. Which is a good thing considering that her independent label finds itself in that ambiguous middle ground of no longer being a new brand on the rise nor one that has achieved world domination. Partow, which the designer launched in 2011, is one of those sleeper hit fashion houses. You know the ones I am talking about. The brands whose names you whisper in the ears of only your closest friends when they ask you where you got that amazing relaxed fit purple suit or the dress with architectural pleating on the bodice or strategically placed cut-outs. Partow’s aesthetic is one of modern minimalism. Where the use of color and structural detail work help to elevate the understated foundation to a more refined realm.  Nellie’s design approach is perfectly understandable considering that - after graduating from Parsons - and just like with her boxing training, she put in the hours, days, months, and years learning her craft. Working at Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, and John Varvatos for a cumulative 10-year stint before she hung up her own shingle.  Her