Nicole
Richie: Picture by Alan Silfen. Source: The Sunday Telegraph
Jonathon Moran, The Sunday Telegraph, reports
Nicole Richie is always on edge - and she'd like to keep it that way.
It's no surprise considering she's juggling being mum to two children under five, a burgeoning fashion empire, starring on a new US reality show and making Sydney her new home away from home.
"It is really important for me to just keep constantly creating and constantly studying," Nicole Richie tells Insider with confidence.
"I don't believe that I should ever get to a place where I, in my heart, think that I am so successful that I can relax.
"You have to not take any day for granted and just keep working and be grateful for the opportunities that you have and that is really what I try to do."
Richie, 30, has been in Sydney for just over a week. She and pop rocker husband Joel Madden are the toast of the town, both declaring they'd like to make the harbour city their permanent home off the back of his success as a coach on Channel Nine’s The Voice.
They've already enrolled their kids - Harlow, 4, and Sparrow, 2 - in daycare and are looking to lease a home here for at least the next 12 months.
Richie this week will begin work in Australia, appearing at the David Jones CBD store to promote her labels - House of Harlow 1960 jewellery and handbags and Winter Kate clothing.
She's also been the face of Jimmy Choo and Bongo jeans, has her own perfume and is about to release a line of clothing through Macy's department stores in the US.
It's been a remarkable career trajectory for Richie, daughter of pop icon Lionel Richie, who started out in public life as Paris Hilton's best friend on reality TV show The Simple Life.
Even she'd admit her career could have gone either way. But instead of being famous for being famous, like so many reality TV has-beens, Richie has slowly built up her own brand to become an empire to be admired.
Like her or loathe her, Richie has become a style icon in her own right, although it's a tag she is reluctant to wear.
"I am one person and I do do it all myself and so I can't just throw out multiple lines all at once," she says of her business plan.
"There's a lot of studying your craft and a lot that goes into creating these pieces.
"It is not just about making cool clothes, it is about knowing your business and knowing the customer.
"I would never release anything that I wouldn't wear myself and that I didn't back 100 per cent."
To Richie, fashion "is the ultimate form of self-expression".
"As a girl, you grow up, you love playing dress-ups and just really expressing who you are through fashion and I think that comes from a very early age," she says.
"I love the idea of being able to express yourself through the clothes that you wear."
It's not always been easy for Richie, who endured a very public breakdown in her high-profile friendship with Hilton. She has put her troubled past behind her - including hard partying and two arrests for driving under the influence.
And in recent years, she's focused fully on being a mum and growing her business (she is a mentor on America's Fashion Star reality show alongside Jessica Simpson).
The secret to her success, she says, is making sure she takes time for herself. With two young kids, that means getting up at 5am daily.
"That time is just for me to be by myself," she says of the early mornings.
"It is a special time for me and I use it to just breathe, relax, figure out how I'm going to prioritise my day - and having that hour to hour-and-a-half to myself, I truly believe, helps me be a better woman to my businesses and a better mother to my children."
Looking back, Richie has had her share of fashion slip-ups, but she says the good thing is that people constantly evolve their look.
"I will choose comfort over glamour any time. I have to be comfortable. I don't have a good poker face," she says.
At a recent cocktail party supporting The Voice, Richie made a point of singling out a guest wearing a sassy polka-dot dress and she seemed just as delighted to find out the outfit was from a Coogee boutique rather than a high end design label.
"I think the coolest thing about fashion is that it is always evolving," she says.
"For me, my job as a designer is to create a world that I think other women would want to be a part of."
And in Australia, she's hoping to pick up plenty of inspiration.
Richie is a huge fan of local designers such as sass & bide and Ksubi.
"When I come here, I stock up," she says.
And she's looking forward to embracing life Down Under.
"It is just a wonderful place to be so I would like to spend as much time here as possible."
Nicole Richie will appear at David Jones Elizabeth St store on Saturday between 10.30am and 12pm
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