Nicole Apostoli, founder and designer for Presh, has been adorning people with her creations since she was a young, free-spirited girl. She will never forget buying some of her first beads from a vendor at Grateful Dead show in Oakland, California, when she was only 14 years old.
When thinking about this, she says “I laugh now, because looking back, at that young age, I was somewhere that I was not 'supposed' to be, probably doing things that I shouldn't have been, and it was most likely the most pivotal point in launching my career!”
Nicole used the beads that she bought at that show to start making pieces to adorn her friends and family, and this quickly became an obsession. Sooner than later, she found herself with a bead addiction that no 12 step program could cure, and she had designed more pieces than what she could give away. Nicole was also now in a predicament, as she needed a way to fund her habit, so she started selling her work wherever she went in her young travels. Her first wholesale account was landed when she was only 18 years old when she was staying with a friend in New Orleans, Louisiana during Mardi Gras. They saw an ad in the paper (yes, it was that long ago) for a concert that night that they wanted to attend, but they did not have the money for the tickets. However, Nicole did have jewelry, and that gave her an idea.
“I walked into the nicest store in the French Quarter, nervous, of course, with about thirty one of a kind pieces. They were mostly long necklaces that I made with lacquered roses, vintage silver lockets and antique Mardi Gras beads. The buyer took every single one and wrote me a check on the spot, I was blown away!" Needless to say, Nicole and her friend attended the concert that night and she even had some money left over to buy more beads!
As Nicole grew up, she interrupted her travels and adventures with a four year stint at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, her home base, where she studied metal smithing and earned her BFA in 2001.
After college, Nicole quickly found herself catapulted into the New York fashion world, where she landed her line, Presh, onto the shelves of the top jewelry showroom in SoHo. The demand for her ideas and jewelry expanded from the underground festival scene to high profile celebrities and magazines.
Over the years, as the Presh brand grew, Nicole realized that in order to meet the increasing demands of the mass market, she would be forced to make a decision on whether to sacrifice her core beliefs and the quality of the work by having her items made in large factories, or to keep true to the hand crafted, bohemian roots that raised her. She decided on the latter, using high quality materials, to focus on limited edition pieces and well made, original designs.
At Presh we do not cut corners when it comes to craftsmanship. We’ve chosen to not mass produce our designs in order to get our costs down like many ‘fast fashion’ companies today. We do not believe that fashion should last only one season and then end up in a landfill. Rather we have chosen to focus on the quality and hand made details that our customers have come to know and love us for.
We would not have made it this far without gratitude in our hearts, and of course, hard work. We are especially grateful to you, our loyal customers. Thank you for appreciating locally produced and fair trade fashion, and for supporting small hand made businesses. Please feel free contact us any time during your online shopping experience and we will do our best to answer any questions you may have.