Every issue, GRAZIA USAGame Changers who inspire, educate and celebrate individuality, beauty and style. Meet Nicole Williams English, the swimwear designer and 2023 S.I. Swim Rookie who’s hitting her stride.
From a young age, Nicole Williams English had a strong love for fashion. The model and entrepreneur grew up in a quiet, small town within the Canadian Province of Newfoundland, yearning to be in the fashion industry. “I grew up wanting to be in that world,” Williams English tells GRAZIA USA. “I always wanted to be a model. I spent all my young years cutting out pictures in magazines, putting them on my wall and envisioning life in a big city, doing what I love and creating this dream life for myself that I wanted to accomplish.”
When she was a teen, her mom decided to pack up and move Williams English and her brothers to Toronto, which opened the door to more modeling opportunities in the metropolis.
“That’s where it all took off,” recalls Williams English, who signed with Next Model Management. Later, she moved to New York City to “take modeling more seriously,” before she headed to Los Angeles. “That’s when I felt ready to start my own company,” Williams English says. In 2017 she launchd her luxury swimwear line, Nia Lynn.
“I decided to design swimwear because throughout all my years of modeling, swimwear was one of the things that I did the most,” she explains. Williams English sought to zero-in on the “pains of searching for a swimsuit” and squash them with her designs. “It’s the most revealing outfit you’re going to wear,” she says. “You want to feel confident and sexy in your own skin.” The designer wants her customers to “be as comfortable as you can when you’re showing the most vulnerable side of you.”
Not one to just talk the talk, Williams English is willing to walk the walk. The star put it all out there with a memorable appearance during Miami Swim Week in July 2022, when she revealed her pregnancy on the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit runway wearing a tiny string bikini and an ultra-high-cut metallic gold maillot she designed herself with “ROOKIE” written across her chest, showing off her bourgeoning baby bump.
“I wanted to own that stage. My husband came out and kissed my belly. It was just a really cool moment,” she recalls.
Then, Williams English graced the pages of the 2023 S.I. Swim issue as a 2023 S.I. Rookie while she was eight-months pregnant. “I felt very ‘I am woman,'” she says. “It was so much more meaningful to me because I was carrying my baby girl.”
Williams English and her husband, former NFL player Larry English welcomed their first baby together, daughter India Moon English, in January 2023.
In May, she debuted a 12-piece collection from her swimwear line Nia Lynn, made in collaboration with S.I. Swim, in partnership with Reunited Clothing. Filled with chic and sexy string bikinis and strapless bandeaus in a variety of trend-forward patterns and colors, the capsule even includes her iconic metallic “ROOKIE” one-piece with “Sports Illustrated Swim“ emblazoned across the chest. “The line is just so amazing,” she says. “I worked really hard on it because I wanted every fit to be perfect.”
All of her new opportunities with Sports Illustrated Swim have been “such a dream” for Williams English. “I’ve wanted to be an S.I. Rookie for over 20 years. That was my ultimate goal. Sports Illustrated was always at the top of my list,” she says.
Read GRAZIA USA’s Summer issue featuring cover star Priyanka Chopra Jonas:
