Fátima Ojeda (Madrid, 1967) is the founder of Nícoli, and this is her story. It is a story full of trips, curiosity and circumstances that led her to establish, without even being aware of it, a brand that is now consolidated in Spain and has a spirit of international expansion.

Her father is from Asturias and her mother from Catalonia; she is the middle sister of seven siblings, the rest of which are male. There has always been a great interest in decoration and art throughout her family. When she turned fourteen, she was sent to a boarding school in England, where she was exposed to a very different way of learning. Later on, she continued studying at another boarding school, but now in Switzerland, until she came of age, where she received a freer, more fun and cosmopolitan education, as opposed to the stricter education received in England. Back in Spain, she initiated her professional career at United Distillers and, subsequently, continued at Philip Morris.

Soon after, she got married and began combining her work with the birth of her children. Fate decided that one of her children be born with cerebral palsy, which sparked her interest in starting something and combining her work with rehabilitation.

Barely five months after the birth of her child, she designed a small collection with craftsmen in the area of her beloved town of Comillas, which she later continued from the garage of her home in Madrid and started selling by catalogue. In 1994, Nícoli was born, and these humble collections grew as her children grew up.

Fátima believes that the most important thing is being able to count on a team of good professionals with genuine values. She is passionate about aesthetics, beauty, quality work, travel, flea markets, museums, history and culture, always keeping a close eye on fashion trends.

As a creative and enterprising director, she tells her story with the aim of offering a positive message to other women who have experienced or are going through similar circumstances as hers, so it can serve as motivation to undertake a new venture and begin a new stage.

She directs the entire design process on a daily basis with the same enthusiasm as those first few months in Comillas, which became the seed of a highly familiar and consolidated brand.

At Nícoli, we have been doing what we like most for years: creating fashion for several generations.

During this period, we have opened 18 shops in the best areas of the main cities (13 in Spain, 1 in Portugal and 4 corners in El Corte Inglés).

The secret has always been working towards becoming a multi-generational company in which the mothers of today were the Nícoli babies and girls of yesteryear and where all ages can come together in one shop.

All of this is carried out by a large team of around 150 highly motivated people of different ages, from several countries and of which 90% are women. Our main offices are in Madrid, which is from where we design, plan and coordinate all the collections.

70% of our production is domestic and carried out in Spain and Portugal. The remaining 30% comes mostly from India, where we work with workshops that boast a high degree of craftsmanship and from which we obtain unique garments as a result of the hand-printed technique employed, which is exclusive in each metre of fabric that we produce there.

We prepare each season with exclusive designs and unique fabrics. We produce pill collections that are identified as of slow fashion, aimed at consuming in a responsible and conscientious way. We promote care in the production processes and seek to ensure each product's quality, so they are durable, sustainable and can pass on from parents to children or siblings.