After completing her undergraduate studies at Youngstown University, she packed her bags and headed east to New York City’s venerable Fashion Institute of Technology. She aced her degree in design, married painter Robert Savage and set out to pay her dues in design studios around town.

However, Nanette knew she wouldn’t be satisfied until her creations bore her own name. In 1992, bolstered by a $5,000 loan from her dad to strike out on her own, Nanette set up shop in a penthouse office in the garment district. It quickly became an incubator for poets and painters who would bounce ideas off one another while stargazing on the roof.

Today Nanette designs in her atelier in New York City alongside her husband, Robert, who helms the business side of the worldwide brand as its President. Nanette enjoys a strong following among editors, chic style-makers and celebrities including Blake Lively, Eva Longoria Parker, Lindsay Price, Katherine Heigl, Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson and Freida Pinto.