Ex-Victoria's Secret Designer's New Startup: Source Globally, Make Locally

Nearly a decade working in corporate fashion led the founders of Cienne to seek out a radical new business model.

When apparel designer Nicole Heim quit her job at Victoria's Secret three years ago, she wanted to get as far away from the drudgery of the corporate fashion world as possible. She wound up in Ethiopia, working for the non-profit Charity: Water. "It was kind of crazy, I was by myself with almost no resources in the mountains in Ethiopia," she says. "One day I saw Ethiopian weavers prepping their looms in the same way they have for centuries, and it got me interested to see if we could adapt that in a modern way."

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