We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nicole Wiltshire. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nicole below.

Nicole, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

I began working on my clothing brand SunniyDaze, once I realized that I was still hiding behind fears of rejection in the industry, and also I realized this fear was tied to past trauma that I viewed as failure.

I have worked in the fashion industry for over a decade, and during the pandemic, after doing some soul searching, I decided that it was time to share my voice and ideas with the world, fearlessly and unapologetically.

SunniyDaze promotes emotional trauma healing and positivity with positive messages in our designs and branding. We believe that not everyday will be Sunniy, but when we choose to push through life’s stormiest times and not give up hope, our reward is our SunniyDaze.

In other words, there is no pleasure, without a little bit of pain.

A little background on me is that I grew up feeling insecure and unsure of myself up until my mid to late 20s. I was raised in a single parent household with not much guidance in regards to finding a successful life as an adult. Despite that, I always believed in myself and had faith in myself and my intuition.

SunniyDaze is created to help other be encouraged to voice their opinions, share their art, and follow their dreams.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I grew up as the youngest child of two immigrant parents, in a small town called, Avenel, NJ. My parents got divorced when I was 8 years old, and it feels like I have been on a spiritual journey on my own, ever since.

My mother loves fashion and jewelry. She is the queen fashionista of the family and she bought me my first coloring book which was a coloring book of all the designers of 7th Avenue (Fashion Avenue) in New York. She wouldn’t let me color in it until I was able to stay in the lines. It was such a huge accomplishment when I was finally able to color in it and that was my first entry into design world. Coloring the sketches of the Donna Karan, Carolina Herrera, Tommy Hilfiger collections (Just to name a few!)

As soon as I was old enough to work in the local mall where I lived in Woodbridge Township NJ, I applied to work at Cold Stone Creamery over the holiday. It was the only store that would take me with zero experience at all, but I knew my heart was set on working in a shoe store. After about 3 months at Cold Stone, I was hired as a cashier at a standalone Party City in my neighborhood, and I stayed there for about a year, before I finally had my shot to work in Aldo’s in Woodbridge Mall.

There, I learned that I had a skill for sales and relationship building. I was so eager and excited when helping customers try on their shoes, and I learned the number 1 rule of retail sales there — Never Lie To The Customer.

Fast forward a year and a half or so, I was turning 18. Back when I worked at Cold Stone, I desired to apply at Nordstrom, but wasn’t able to, since I was not a legal adult at that time, so 1 week before my 18th birthday, I walked into that same Nordstrom, went directly to the HR offices on the second floor, and asked to be hired.

Believe it or not, that landed me the opportunity, and Nordstrom opened up my world to all of the luxury that my mother introduced me to since childhood.

Here’s where things get fun…

I stayed at Nordstrom until I was 19 1/2 years old. In my heart, I knew there was more out there in the world to see, and I wanted to give myself the best shot to see what opportunities were out there for me. At this time, MTV was still huge, and there were a lot of shows like True Life, that really inspired me to get out of my small town and work in the entertainment industry.

Long story short, I sent my resume out to 75 unpaid internships one day in entertainment and TV. I didn’t care who hired me, I just wanted to be exposed to something new and exciting. Maybe 2 weeks or so after, I received a phone call from a fashion stylist who also had a t-shirt clothing brand at the time. I ended up making a connection with him over the phone, I met him in New York City for an interview, and right after the interview, we walked over to the Stella McCarteny store for a PETA Event where Taraji P. Henson was hosting!

That was my sign that I was in the right place and on the right path. I was hired by that stylist as an assistant stylist/personal assistant, and my world was opened up again, to the reality of the fashion industry. I was beginning to understand all of the jobs that exist in the industry that help to keep the companies we all love, running successfully.

During that time, I realized that all it takes is trying, determination, and effort to pursuit your dreams and find success. The fashion stylist I assisted was smack dab in the center of the industry. He knew everyone who was up and coming in New York at that time, and I was able to leverage that experience to go into my own freelance work.

I freelanced after being an assistant for about 3 years. I wasn’t getting paid for any of the photo shoots I was styling. I loved it. Being on set was fun, and I was being creative in a way that felt very tailored to my personality. Back then, no one really knew that celebrities had stylists, so it was a time period where I had went from thinking that I would just go to school and get a job in business or be a lawyer of some sorts, to realizing that I love being creative, and that I am actually good at styling clothing.

I know by now, you’re expecting me to say that from there, I went on to become an amazing fashion stylist and life was amazing ever since, but that is not the case.

I mentioned that I was not getting paid for my styling gigs. Eventually that was no longer sustainable, I wasn’t a young 20 year old anymore looking for something new. I needed to figure out what my plan in life was. Since I didn’t really have much work experience outside of retail, I decided to reach out to some of the connections that I made over the years, to see if I could land a job in the industry. A friend of mine had offered to connect me with BET as a stylist for their most popular show at the time, 106&Park. However, I did not have a college degree so I was not qualified for the opportunity.

The feeling in my stomach was very sickening I recall. About 2 weeks after that occurred, I began looking into schools that had fashion degrees available and I registered to attend Berkeley College back home in Woodbridge.

I studied Fashion Marketing and Merchandising and figured I could work in the showrooms that stylists pull clothes from, on the other side of my previous experience.

Once I started school, I also had moved from NJ to Brooklyn to live with my grandmother. My mother and I were not getting along, and I had no idea what I was going to do with my life. Ironically, I had to commute all the way back to Woodbridge NJ for class daily, but I was determined to focus and do what I needed to do.

Eventually I needed money to survive, so while attending school full time, I went back to what I knew best… RETAIL.

I received a job opportunity on Madison Avenue at a women’s ready to wear boutique. I learned so much about luxury from my store director who I am still very near and dear to today. Then, I left Madison Avenue to work in Soho at the Kooples.

After college, I knew I wanted to leave New York City and head to California. So, about 6 months after graduating, my boyfirend who I lived with at that time and I moved to San Jose, CA in 2019.

I had never even visited the Bay Area before and had no idea what to expect. When I arrived, about a month later, I was recruited by Sephora’s corporate headquarters. My degree helped me to work in corporate on supply chain, merchandising, and leadership teams in retail. I remember thinking all of my retail experience was so useless. Boy, was I wrong!

Fast forward to the covid pandemic. I remember feeling like I had forgotten why I started. I began to think deeply about why I had never returned to my plan of entrepreneurship after styling. The answer was that I had become fearful. Fearful of what people will think, or say. I was afraid of people stealing my ideas, etc.

I prayed about it for days, and it came to me that I don’t have any reason to be afraid, and that if anyone should be starting a business let alone a clothing line, it definitely SHOULD be me!
I had to change my attitude.

I began to work on SunniyDaze as a personal project and as I shared more about the brand online or to close family and friends, the feedback I received was so positive that it helped to build my confidence up.

I launched SunniyDaze in April 2022 with just 1 T-shirt. It was important for me to stress that I don’t need more than one shirt to prove that I am capable of success. My first t-shirt launch sold out 100% and that was all the encouragement I needed to continue on. I released my second tee on September 21st, and I am working on my Spring collections for my next drop.

My process for creating my designs is that there is no overthinking or stress. If something gets too complicated, I put it down and come back to it later. But the biggest deal for me so far, has been my realization of my imposter syndrome while going through the process of marketing.

I noticed that I was asking friends for help with things like PR, Social Media, or Marketing Strategies, and then we’d get on a call and I’d organized all of the plans myself, so my friends would ask me what exactly do I need help with?

That confirmed for me that I needed to keep pushing and growing, because I was so uncertain of my own capabilities that I was asking for help that I didn’t need. Not saying I don’t need help, I need tons of help, but now I trust myself more before calling out for help.

Everyone who works with our brand are people and businesses who have the same values. I don’t concern myself with the status quo, or what other people or brands are doing. I keep my thoughts positive and think of how I can help to inspire someone who might need it!

Our t-shirts are sized for both men and women, and we also encourage the over-sized look to promote body positivity and oneness.

We differ from other brands in our product quality, our messaging, and professionalism. For a small brand, we value relationship building with our clients and want to ensure that everyone who interacts with SunniyDaze, from the models you see in photos, to creative partners, down to the USPS team who helps us ship, has a positive experience.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn fear.

I had thought that I was living a fearless life. I thought that I was facing my fears, and going for all my goals, and then I realized that my brain had just done a really great job hiding my fear from me. People would ask me about styling, and I would lie and say that I had moved on, and I didn’t want t do it anymore, but I was afraid of failure and opinions of others.

I had to re-learn how to trust myself, and my instincts. The young girl who went after what she believed in, described previously, was gone. I began to believe the negative things people would say about it being unrealistic to make it big, and that’s never been my mindset. So I had to get my thoughts right, start thinking about who God made me to be, what my truths are, and shake that negativity off!

I still have to stay vigilant even today.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I completed my last semester of college, I decided that I wanted to go into PR. I was still living in New York at this time, and as I went around the city interviewing at the top PR firms, I quickly learned that very few people in the industry looked like me.

That was never enough to keep me away in any sense, so of course I persisted on getting interviewed until I found a fit. However, the best thing about this story, is that I had no idea what PR was, or how it worked. I just know that many other didn’t know how to explain it when I’d ask, and my college elective in PR didn’t quite hit the nail on the head either.

That didn’t stop me. I took the first interview at Karla Otto, and I knew I had no chance of answering any questions correctly, so my strategy was to go in and listen to all the questions that were being asked of me.

After that interview that I obviously was not called back for, I received a call back for every single PR interview I went on, because I mastered researching the firms and I went into each interview with a strategy to lead the conversation and share all of the research I had done in my verbiage.

I worked at a PR firm for about 6/7 months before I moved to San Jose, CA in 2019.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.SunniyDaze.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/SunniyDaze
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SunniydazeLLC
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sunniydaze-llc/
• Twitter: Twitter.com/SunniyDaze
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCM0dFxauDpQ4xsnMGd1WytA
• Yelp: https://yelp.to/ShyN63WCtub
• Other: www.linktr.ee/SunniyDaze

Image Credits
Johanna Desrosiers for first 3 thumbnails.