Nicole Richie: Figure skating gave me the fashion bug

OHMYGOSSIP — Style icon Nicole Richie has revealed that she got hooked on fashion at a young age when she would have to dress up for her figure skating classes.

The ‘Candidly Nicole’ star – who has her own label House of Harlow – discovered her love of clothes when she would take to the ice in glamorous outfits as a young child.

Nicole – who is the adopted daughter of legendary pop singer Lionel Richie – shared: “I was a figure skater my whole life. My dad’s costume designer, Edna, would make my figure skating outfits when I would compete, and she urged me one day to go to her studio downtown, and she showed me how everything worked.”

She continued: “It was when Nancy Kerrigan won an Olympic medal wearing Vera Wang that I was introduced to the designer world. Edna said to me, ‘You have all these ideas, why don’t you come in and design everything yourself?’ I was nine or 10. I went to stores and bought charms with strips of velvet to make chokers.”

Nicole married Good Charlotte frontman Joel Madden in 2010 and says she finally found time to develop her interest in design when she travelled with him and his band on tour.

The 34-year-old star – who has children Harlow, eight, and Sparrow, six, with Joel, 36 – told new Hong Kong-based magazine #legend: “When I was on tour with Joel, I’d go to little kiosks where I was inspired by something – a colour or a lampshade – that could be something else. And when I was 25, I decided to turn it into an actual business, and it’s been something I’ve loved.”