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Some people spend their entire lives trying to home in on their passions, but for Nia Thomas, it seems like her destiny was written from the start. Growing up on New York’s Long Island, she spent her evenings assisting her aunts in their alteration shop, learning just as much about the world through the lens of design as she did in any classroom. Within the walls of her family shop, she traveled through eras of history via vintage sewing patterns and discovered different cultures through the textures and colors of endless bolts of fabric.
Years later, all these lessons manifested in her eponymous resortwear brand. Restless and eager, she first hung out her shingle at age 23. Motivated both by a desire to travel and the hope of seeing more Black female designers rise to the mainstream of fashion, Thomas channeled ease and serenity in her early designs. “Honestly, at the time I just wanted to feel like I was on vacation,” she jokingly confirms. Hand-crocheted dresses and swimsuits, alongside seashell-embellished designs in shades of white and cream, quickly became staples and bestsellers for the young brand. From there, everything started to fall into place.
“It all happened so fast,” she says. “I went from putting together a small fashion show to staying up until 3 A.M. creating a website so people could buy my designs.” Reflecting on her early days as a designer, she chalks up some of her fearlessness to naïveté. Nonetheless, her story motivates her to this day. “You can do this at any age,” she says. “You just have to be a little delusional and know that nothing can stop you.”
It’s a sentiment that also sums up the process of creating her fall 2025 collection. Regal tones of blue, purple, and red were a departure from her usual neutral hues. “I have such an affinity for warm weather and traveling to places that are rich with culture and color,” Thomas says. But her lineup was also full of contradictions. Halter tops were hand-crocheted using leather cording, while long coats and bolero jackets made of paper raffia swept the runway—letting us know that resortwear is for everywhere and anytime. “When people think of materials like raffia, they automatically think of a straw bag you take to the beach,” Thomas says. “But I say, ‘No, you can wear it in the fall as a coat,’ because I want to challenge what people think these materials can be used for.”
Thomas had a pop-up late last year at “It” resort Palm Heights in the Grand Cayman, and her line is sold at Moda Operandi. Though her impeccable crocheted designs wouldn’t be out of place at any of the White Lotus resort locations, she refuses to be pigeonholed. “I want to steer away from solely being known for resortwear; I feel like it’s just the thing that [resonated] with people. Still, I’m glad because there are so many designers who spend years trying to figure out their signature,” she says. “Resortwear chose me; I didn’t choose it.”
A version of this story appears in the Summer 2025 issue of ELLE.
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