Nell Diamond: Revolutionizing the Nap Dress
- Ingrid Guo
- Mar 5, 2021
- 3 min read
Author: Mercedes Zobel de Ayala '22
Nell (Nellie) Diamond is a Princeton University graduate who worked on Wall Street in finance, only to leave her job to pursue home and fashion retail. In leaving her job, she effectively created a new landscape for the home retail space and was able to capitalize on her work with the “Nap Dress.”
Diamond had always been attuned to archetypal femininity and in her early life, Diamond was fascinated by the retail space. However, when she would vocalize this passion, she was often criticized and rejected, as her interest was categorized as “just shopping.” This rejection sparked her interest in the duality of creating something that was classified as feminine and could overtake the male landscape.
During her time at Wall Street, she believed the financial world to be enticing, however, the consistency of her life bored her. She began chasing her friends who worked in equity research and believed she could revolutionize the retail space within the spectrum of home decor. At the time, the home segment in retail was very underserved, and so, in order to pursue this dream, she applied to the Yale School of Management, because of their esteemed entrepreneurship program.
After her work at the Yale School of Management, she began her home retail store called “Hill House Home.” She launched Hill House because she couldn’t find beautifully designed, well-priced, thoughtfully sourced products for her first apartment. With this idea, she pursued her company, and after 6 months of work, she was able to open her store in 2016.
Surprisingly, on the opening day of Hill House Home, she got the news that she was pregnant. Although unexpected, Diamond was ecstatic at the idea of having a baby boy. However, as a result, Diamond had terrible pregnancy side-effects, and with employees quitting, she had to manage her company entirely by herself.
She wanted to be completely self-made in her company because of the contrast she felt between what she was representing and what could be considered archetypal femininity. Being self-made also benefited her product design as well. Due to the fact that her company is a direct-to-consumer brand, she was able to create the markup price a lot lower than if she were selling in a retail store. Additionally, her products are directly from the manufacturer, which meant that many thoughtful decisions were made for each product, from fulfillment to product development to retail expansion.
In the summer of 2019, Hill House Home began selling fashion retail with its main product being “the nap dress.” The nap dress got its name due to the convenience and comfort it provided its customers. Its appeal is that it is structurally made to be worn outside, yet also to lounge indoors. The product was able to gain recognition from the outburst of customers during the coronavirus. Diamond attracted writers from Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and The New Yorker.
After her nap dress spark, Diamond was able to capitalize on her brand of being a “working mom.” With one boy and two twins on their way, Diamond used her personal Instagram as a blog for working moms, capturing the common struggles they go through every day. With this, she was enticed to launch a new subsection of Hill House Home which was now labeled as Hill Home Baby, further maximizing her strengths.
Diamond credits the majority of her popularity to the recent, strong uptake on social media traction. It has allowed her hyper-loyal customer base to naturally share their products with friends and family and has served as a focus group for her company.
With her innovation, educational background, and efforts in pursuing her dream role, Diamond was able to create a brand that has been successful by putting her fashion passions and family ideals together. Nell is just one woman in a sea of women that proves you can succeed in a male-dominated field by doing what you do best.
The nap dress has been something personal to me, as all the girls in my family wear it as a representation of what can be done through hard work and perseverance.
Sources:
Image Sources:
@nelliediamond on Instagram
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