Lynn's Story

 

Lynn Nice, the founder of Labels, grew up on the east coast where she was exposed to and developed a love for sewing and fashion from her grandmother and godmother. The 70’s was rife with homemade, decorative clothing. Think patches, fringe, embroidery  rings and macrame. Together, they’d construct from pattern or imagination when Lynn was just 7 years old. With their tutelage, Lynn made clothes for herself and her dolls and learned the basics in apparel construction. To this day, a favorite item is a patchwork quilt her Godmother made her.

When she graduated HS in the late 80’s she studied fashion in cities including Manhattan, NY, Los Angeles, CA and Paris, France. Her sophomore year, she was accepted into a Dean Scholar program where she tailored her studies to apparel design, textile art, CAD and pattern making and visual merchandising. She coordinated a city wide fashion show, modeled in her classmates design competitions, won an sculptural art competition for a millarny piece and in 1991, graduated second in her class. Lynn was the first person on either her fathers or mothers side to graduate from college.

Upon graduation, she decided to return to southern CA where she had interned the summer prior. She worked in the sport and surf-wear industry for Speedo, Gotcha Surf, as well as doing some freelance pattern making work for several LA start-ups.

A former manager recruited Lynn from Speedo to join his new Visual Merchandising team at the esteemed South Coast Plaza location in Orange county. For several years she was 1 of 3 on the team to do all visuals and merchandising for the 3 level Men's Store. Her real love was Women’s Couture and Ready-to-Wear and she transitioned to team lead assistant for Macy’s Main Store, where she grew her knowledge of women’s fashion and styling. Fendi and Versace commissioned Lynn to do their window displays as well.

Because Lynn had her fashion roots in making her own clothing, repurposing rescued thrift store finds and fashion sustainability in general, she set her sights on seeing if sustainable fashion was possible in the extravagant Orange County community she had been calling home the past 4 years.

Lynn discovered several very high caliber women’s fashion consignment venues in Southern California. It was 1995 and consignment was just getting a foothold with the stylish clientele there. Lynn secured a position as manager of a chic venue in Newport Beach where she learned and grew the business. A year later, when Lynn relocated to the Bay area, she continued the partnership with her small business mentor to assist in the design, merchandising and staffing of a second, much larger, location in Dallas, TX.

Lynn's love of the consignment concept was enough to nudge her to write her own business plan and branch out on her own in the Bay area. Labels Walnut Creek was founded in 1998 on her 29th birthday. The store grew from 1,200 sq. ft to 6,000 sq. feet over the past 22 years. Twelve years later, after first opening, Labels, Berkeley launched as a satellite shop. This venue boasts high end handbags, shoes, apparel as well as collectible jewelry and trouvaille in the mezzanine.

In her personal life, Lynn is a wife of 21 years (31 together) to Dan who is a boutique wine maker and co-owner of Revolve Wine, as well as Lynn’s right arm at Labels. They are parents to 3 children, ages 16, 13 and 10. Lynn balances her time between work, family and a rich community of friends. She has been a room parent at her kids' schools for the past 12 years, has served as  coordinator for a 150+ attendee community building gathering at Oakland’s Feather River Camp 5 years running, served on the board as treasurer in her Elmwood merchant community, volunteered on a local district seat political campaign and most recently jumped in at the Berkeley Playhouse as assistant costume designer.

Community building within Labels brick & mortar spaces these two + decades has made Lynn’s career fulfilling beyond imagination. The team has always been family and all that have been a part of Labels have developed connections with thousands of you, our clients and consignors. Such a joy! For this reason, on-line sales and social media promotion had not been a priority, until 2020 when small businesses took a huge hit due to the current pandemic. Seeing fellow shop owners close their doors all around, motivated Lynn to reinvent the shopping experience to include on-line to further reach both our current locals and a new worldwide audience. We are thrilled for this new chapter for all of us at Labels.Hope to reach a greater audience and continue developing connections, far and wide.