A day in the life of media and fashion mogul, Nikkie Plessen. Over 100 staff on the NIKKIE team in Amsterdam 215,000 followers strong on Instagram 30 seconds to reach the office.
A day in the life of media and fashion mogul, Nikkie Plessen. Over 100 staff on the NIKKIE team in Amsterdam 215,000 followers strong on Instagram 30 seconds to reach the office.
6:00AM I wake up and tend to Alain, my son, who wakes up at 6:35am every day. After that, I go for a run in Vondelpark, which is next to where I live in Amsterdam. I run about five to six times a week. Twice a week, a personal trainer comes over to do all sorts of training, including boxing. After having two babies, I need to do more to stay in shape.
7:30AM I’m really bad in the kitchen, but I’m very good with breakfast. After my run, I prepare eggs, croissants, fresh juice and cake for the family. To set the mood for the day, I play either classical music or something energetic like Beyoncé or Justin Bieber as we eat. I don’t take much, so I’ll just have an egg and fresh fruit with yoghurt. I feed the kids some bread that I baked myself the night before using my breadmaking machine. It takes only two minutes to mix the dough, and you can add nuts and raisins—it’s so healthy and good.
8:00AM Things start to get busy around this time. Our helper arrives at the house to take care of Alain. Ruben, my husband, sends our daughter, Jolie, to school on the way to his office. I am out of the house by 8:15am. I don’t usually like to wear makeup, unless I’m filming on that day for RTL Boulevard, a daily television programme where I host a weekly segment about fashion. On most days, it’s only mascara on my lashes, Charlotte Tilbury cream on my face, Nivea moisturiser on my body, and my hair up in a knot. I love Hermès’ Voyage d’ Hermès and Elie Saab’s Le Parfum—they’re my favourite scents—so I’ll spritz either one on myself, depending on my mood. Before I step out of the house, I’ll strap on a pair of high heels or my comfortable biker boots, depending on whether I’m having meetings in the day. After that, I’ll take a 30-second walk to the office, which is right across my house.
9:00AM My office looks a little like a castle, and my work room is all the way in the tower on top. I spend about 45 minutes in each department to check up on how things are running. I always start from the left, where the design team is, to discuss and update each other on timelines, their sketches, materials and sample production. My inspiration is Kate Moss. Her sense of style is so effortless, so I always like to have an element of rock ’n’ roll with a feminine touch for NIKKIE. I always include strong colours, textures and some leather in my designs. I catch up with the production team to talk about price levels, the PR group to talk about ads and commercials, and also the sales team to talk about customer engagement. There’s always something to correct, and that’s great because we get to learn. Once I’m done checking in with every department, I’m up in my work room answering emails. Everyone knows I’m not an email sort of person, so if I get a hundred emails, for example, I’ll reply them with a really short “Yes,” “No,” and “Okay” answers.
1:00PM I’m most productive between 8am and 1pm, so it’s great to take a break now to recharge. There’s always food in the office. We have wraps, salads, bread and more catered in. It’s so convenient, because everyone likes to take their time with their food. Sometimes, we have customers from abroad who want to buy the NIKKIE or NIK&NIK collections over in the office, so we always need to have good food around. I take my lunch along with me—either sitting down in the office or on the way to a meeting.
3:00PM My schedule is a little bit more flexible after lunch. I have it all organised in my head, but it is my assistant, Lisa, who executes my daily agenda for me. She always goes, “Nikkie, you have this meeting with this editor,” or “Nikkie, you need to wrap up and meet this client.” Lunch meetings are usually with magazine editors, like Cécile Narinx from BAZAAR Netherlands. We have a good relationship, so we talk about everything from fashion to future plans and even about our kids. It's always fun with them. Social media is very important, but so are magazines. The reach is very different, but for a business, I believe that they go hand in hand. As for clients, we discuss business opportunities in my office or theirs, depending on which venue is more convenient for us.
6:15PM I leave the office around 6pm, and walk back home. Everyone in the family is home by then, so we have dinner together. My helper makes dinner for us, but sometimes we eat at restaurants. On weekends when I want to catch up with my friends, we’ll go to Izakaya, after the kids have gone to sleep. It’s a super trendy Japanese restaurant and bar, where they serve really good sushi and cocktails. I love sushi, it’s my guilty pleasure.
7:30PM I put all my electronic gadgets—my laptop, iPhone and computers—aside. Alain and I will be in the playroom, and we’ll play a game or something together. Then, I’ll read him two stories. Jolie likes to play by herself for a little while, so I’ll put her to bed after Alain falls asleep. I’ll read a longer story to Jolie because she’s a little bit older, but she’s usually knocked out after I’ve read out just three pages to her. Now is a good time to take the bread machine out to make fresh bread for the kids to eat the next day. By morning, the whole house will smell like a bakery.
9:30PM After a nice shower, I slather on my Charlotte Tilbury cream, before crawling under my fluff y white Missoni covers. I pull out my laptop to reply to my last few emails, just to get work out of my system, and then I unwind with Netflix—it’s really big in the Netherlands. I take my mind off work with House of Cards or Suits, which I love.
12:00AM I always think to myself, “How was my day?” I think about what went well, and what didn’t. There’s always at least one email in my inbox with a problem. It’s too late to deal with it now, so I put it on my to-do list for the next day, so I can go to sleep without any worries.
''Social media is very important, but so are magazines. I believe that they go hand in hand''
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