Before NIA, Sonia Parvaneh had spent years building a Los Angeles fashion vocabulary, and I think you can feel that experience in the clothes. In 2005 she started Cotton Candy LA, where her work drew on music, art, vintage design and Southern California ease. NIA followed in 2019, and its own story describes a wardrobe made for expressive femininity rather than rules.

 

I like this foundation because it puts a real designer's hand on a practical question, which is how clothes should feel when a woman wants to be seen but still has a whole day to move through. The collections live in the pull between soft and sharp, a skirt, shirt or matching set with a feminine edge that never turns the wearer into a character.

 

What I like most is the back and forth between pretty details and everyday ease, with enough room left for the person wearing it to set the tone.

NIA's tops give me two useful lanes: the easy base and the sharper color note. The Jules Top in brown and the Jules Top in navy let one name work across palettes, while the Jules Shirt in white is a cleaner, lighter place to start. The Cleo Top in oxblood and Declan Top in plum bring in richer shades, and the Cressida Top, Penrose Top and Rosalind Top keep the roster from depending on one look. I went deeper on a related idea in Entire Studios Tops & Dresses: The Pieces Worth the Price.

 

Picture her leaving a downtown lunch in the white Jules Shirt tucked into a dark skirt, with small gold hoops and a flat sandal. For a night plan, I would pair the Cleo Top with black tailoring so the oxblood carries the room. What I would skip: choosing a top without checking how it sits at the back and neckline first, since that decides what you can wear underneath.

The skirts move between a longer line and a shorter, more playful shape. The Elodie Skirt in brown, Natalia Skirt in black and Encina Skirt in merlot give the edit a rich, grounded color story, and the Fennel Skort in charcoal is the practical answer for a day with a lot of walking.

 

I would make one of the darker skirts the anchor and keep the top simple, or let the merlot do the talking with a black tank and flats. Picture her on an easy Saturday in the Fennel Skort, a light tee and sneakers, then changing into the Encina Skirt for an outdoor dinner. If you want a matched look, the Celia Top & Ravello Skirt and the Chandler Top & Parker Mini Skort already come paired.

The dresses move the mood from warm daytime to after dark. The Elvira Dress in white gives a lighter note, while the Marianne Dress and Willow Dress, both in black, are the easy starting points if you want a dark silhouette. The Fairleigh Sweater Dress in charcoal is the cooler-weather one, the one I would save for dinner when the temperature drops.

 

In my fashion dreams she takes the Elvira Dress to a gallery afternoon with a low flat sandal, then trusts the Marianne Dress to carry her to dinner with a jacket in the bag. The Vittoria Sleeveless Midi Dress, Sitges Sleeveless Relaxed Mini Dress, Santal Dress and Salt Sleeveless Fit and Flare Mini Dress round things out with more room to play. If I picked white, I would sort the underlayers out the night before.

I keep thinking about how NIA can make a skirt, a set or a dress feel like the most interesting part of an ordinary day without dressing the wearer in a costume. The center of the label is a confident, feminine point of view, and the pieces leave enough room for you to set the tone.

 

I would start with a color or silhouette I already love, then let one more expressive piece do the work. That feels very Los Angeles to me: personal, open to a little play, and never only for the event calendar. Although I will admit the oxblood might win.