Naimah Spann and Rondelynn Bell first met as teenagers at East Hartford High School, each wearing the same pair of bodacious knee-high, black leather, high-heel boots.
“It was definitely non-traditional,” said Bell, with a laugh, of the attire. “It was wild and crazy looking. We kind of stood out.”
Growing up in the mid-1990s, the two not only shared a passion for outlandish fashion, but endured turbulent home lives. They both knew the pain of being daughters of drug-addicted mothers. Spann and Bell eventually left their moms and went out on their own as teenagers. They each became pregnant shortly thereafter.
Over 20 years, their eerily familiar story lines fortified a friendship. They set off on a journey that would lead them into a world of high fashion and finance, while maintaining a social conscience.
In 2007, Spann and Bell, both now in their mid-30s, opened NIRO design center — conveniently combining the first few letters of their first names in branding their Hartford business on Asylum Street. The venture actually started as an after-school training program for high school students interested in fashion and entrepreneurship. Very little retail business was conducted; that would come later.
The brainstorm for NIRO came after Spann and Bell attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, starting in 1997. Financial aid and weekly train rides into Manhattan made FIT attainable for the self-styled fashion designers. To make money, the two engaged in garment reconstruction, selling hand-made cut jeans, stone washing jeans with bleach and a cheese grater, hand-painting silk T-shirts and affixing buttons to purses. The apparel was funky, offbeat, yet elegant. The two clearly had an eye for fashion, but much to learn about finance.
“For us, it wasn’t really about a business,” Spann said. “We needed money. … When we went to FIT it kind of pulled together all of our natural creative talents with the correct way to do things. It molded our creative talent the correct way.”
Eventually the NIRO program generated contracts from entities such as the state Department of Children and Families, community agencies and school districts in Hartford, Cromwell and Simsbury.
The clothing-design artists found themselves more on the teaching side of the business, rather than the creative side. In 2008, NIRO expanded its retail boutique presence. Two years later, NIRO relocated to a storefront on Pratt Street in Hartford; a training center was opened at the same time on Main Street. The business was growing faster than anticipated and the owners were spending an inordinate amount of time teaching in classrooms. A decision was made to realign and refocus.
Though it started as an after-school program, NIRO was transitioning into a growing retail business — with an after-school component. Bell and Spann didn’t have the time anymore to drive to schools and personally provide training for about 300 students.
NIRO this year will provide personal training to only about 15 students. It is hoping, however, to reach hundreds more through a curriculum that it will launch in September and sell to prospective clients, including school districts, community organizations and parents for up to $2,000.
The recalibrated business plan still calls for NIRO to remain a socially conscious fashion boutique and business-training program. The owners, though, want to go global with its brand by ramping up online marketing and sales. The customer base remains broad — young and older women who like elegant, sometimes edgy, non-traditional clothing designed from artists in California, New York, Italy, Africa, China and India. NIRO primarily offers original designs from around the world. They personally design a small percentage of what they sell. Prices range from $20 for a piece of jewelry to $350 for an ensemble that includes pants, top, purse and jewelry.
The new mantra for Team NIRO, which includes vice president of operations Jennifer Wilder-Jackson, is to work smarter, not harder. Spann and Bell are both candid in their assessment that, after seven years, their business was growing at a pace that became overwhelming.
“We were young and we started with a lot of excitement,” Spann said. “But our structure, and I can say this now, wasn’t as tight as it should have been. We didn’t account for growing pains.”
Bell and Spann traveled to China last year to talk to a prospective client who was enamored by NIRO’s training program and the possibility of incorporating a similar program in Shanghai. A trip to Ghana is planned this year to talk up the training curriculum and look for new clothes designs.
The one-time teenage moms of drug-addicted mothers have come a long way since their days as high school fashionistas. They raised their kids, jointly own a promising business, travel the world and enjoy controlling their own and inspiring youth through fashion. “Ni” and “Ro” are so close that for two decades they have lived either with each other, or near each other.
“I thank God for all of my experiences because I wouldn’t be where I am today without them,” Spann said. “You learn through your mistakes. Hopefully, someone else will take what we tell them and learn from it.”
Their childhood trials bonded them for life.
“We used each other as an anchor when we were going through bad times with our parents,” Bell said. “And that kind of held up through our grown-up lives.”
Stan Simpson is host of “The Stan Simpson Show” (www.Foxct.com/stan and Saturdays, 5:30 a.m., on FoxCT). His ‘Faces in Business’ column appears monthly.
