Hi everyone, I'm Rachel Zoe and you're listening to Climbing in Heels for your weekly dose of glamour, inspiration and of course fun. I'm taking you back to one of my all time favorite episodes with the loveliest and most hilarious Nicki Hilton. You might think you know the Hiltons, but I guarantee you will learn something you didn't know about Nicki and her family from this interview.
So let's get right into it. I'm so happy to have you on.
So I started Climbing in Heels because just like you, I have so many women in my life who are just doing amazing things, have had the most extraordinary careers and done a million things. And our moms and part of families have had major education or next to no education, have had just such different paths to get where they are.
But the point of it is, and you're such a good example of it, is that you've gotten to become who you are in a very genuine way, working really really hard while still embracing being a woman and loving that part of it and always being elegant, and like Climbing and Heels is really like you can get to where you want to be and still be a woman, you know, if that makes sense, and embrace what it
is to be a woman. But everybody's path is different, and I think that the goal for me is to share with people sort of a little bit of who you are, how you got here, and like sort of what drives you, and like what would have been some of your greatest sort of challenges along the way, if any, because I've had the good fortune of knowing you for what feels like your whole life, but probably just the upbart the second the second half. I literally met you in Paris in two thousand and one or two, and
you were so young and always so beautiful. But I remember very clearly being like I actually thought you were her older sister.
What I realized over time was that it was like you.
Didn't say a lot, and then when you did, it was either absolutely hilarious or it was like just straight shooting. It was like you were saying exactly what everyone was thinking, but no one wanted to say. I always like to just go back a little bit to the beginning, because I like to know who were you like as a kid, because you obviously grew up in this beautiful family in a beautiful place.
Right.
I was born in New York and we moved to LA. I feel like I must have been two or three.
Okay, so I consider myself a New Yorker.
You are born New Yorker, although I was by coastal back and forth for a bit, like New York.
Is my roots.
Yeah, you seem New Yorker to me. I'm very New York right, yeah, yeah, everything about you feel New York to me. And and but but not your sister. You seem very New York to me, Like I feel like when you got married and moved back to New York, that to.
Me felt like, okay, yeah, that's where she's supposed to be.
Actually, So when you were a kid, like, were you this like dreamy kid? Were you like the little girl with the pink bows in her hair like your mom's pictures that she posts, and were you just like I want to play with barbies and I want to be this when I grow up? Or were you like a tougher kid? Were you opinionated? Like were you a dreamer? Were you like like what was your what? Who was Nikki little?
I was very very serious, but very girly, very feminine, loved dressing up fashion, playing in my mom's closet, organizing.
Her jewelry and the shoes.
I was so enamored by it all, so I knew from a very very young age that I wanted to do something in fashion, whether it be work at a magazine, a spore, just anything.
I loved all of it.
And did you love like because you come from a family of workers, like your parents are workers, like real workers and doers, And I think, like, I know, for me, that was everything.
Just kind of watching that and living that.
There was never any like I'm going to marry someone wealthy and live happily ever after and go shopping.
That was never like a thought in my head, right.
No, they my parents instilled a very strong work ethic in all of us. And I remember being like twelve years old in the Hamptons and they're like, what are your summer plans? Cause you're not just going to sit and hang out all day. You're going to get a job. I was like, I am twelve, or like, you're going to get a job. I got an internship.
At Hampton's magazine when you were twelve. Yes, that's amazing.
And I actually ended up doing it for a few summers with Amanda Hurst, and we were interns. We did the grittiest, most boring menial tasks, taking the traps out, taking lunch orders, taking all the party picture film across the street to get developed, sending out the magazines to the advertisers.
But I know, I just learned so much.
Of course, I always say there are students and there are workers, right, there's and listen sometimes there's both, right, very often, but I was definitely a worker more than I was a student a one hundred percent. I had my parents gave me the choice not to go to college. There's a good chance I won't tell my kids this now, but like there's a good chance I would have opted out and started working, because I felt like I learned more in my first year working than I did in
four years of school. And so I'm curious to kind of know at what point, So you went to school in the city, or you went to school here city.
I went to high school in college in New York. I went to the Convent of the Sacred Heart, all girls athleic school on the Upper East Side, not as glamorous as Gossip Girl. And then I went to the New School. And then I started working immediately, and.
What was like, So, here's the thing.
You, A lot of people that we know well and probably even more that you that I don't know, got tangled up in a lot of different kinds of trouble, right, And I think the thing is that I'm always in awe of is that.
You in Paris and Baron all really turned.
Out really well, like really just not lost in that. And I think my sister and I the same, And we came from a town where a lot of people got really lost and messed up. And I think for me, I think just knowing you as an adult, I would never see you lose, like be the type of person to lose your footing. And even as I've known you for this long, you just always seem to have it like together, Like you just always seem like not out of control.
Ever, I think that I credit like a lot of my my everything is to my family. We are so tight, we are so close, we are so right or die and supportive of each other and lean on each other. And I'm so grateful for that. And I think, I really, I know it sounds cliche, but like to me, family is everything.
A thousand percent, And don't you realize that even more now as a mother, Like don't you just realize like everything I do is an example for them. I think one thing I definitely want to talk about is like, obviously you have a very visible family, right and I've been like enough to know all of you for so long that to me or like one of the realist families I've ever known, especially in this town and in this industry. You've you've touched fashion in so many ways.
You've touched different facets of the industry, foot where clothing, you've done shows, you're doing jewelry, like you've written books, Like there's so many pieces of this puzzle. I want to know A what's your favorite? And B I want to talk about some of your challenges, right, Like what I guess keeps you awake at night and like what wakes you up in the morning?
Like what is it that?
Like?
Have you had haters? Have you had critics? Have you had trolls? Have you had because it's funny, you don't seem like the person who would ever let that ship bother you. But I think the question is like you've I'm sure you've had some mean girls, Like I'm sure you've had stuff.
Oh yeah, it's so funny you say that, because yesterday after the course show, we went to this Michael had a lunch.
Yeah.
I was staying with all these women and lots of mothers of and we were talking just how great it is, how much kinder the world has become, and even just the media, because.
Growing up in.
The media and the two thousands, they were just down right cruel at times, cruel and.
Sadistic and mean.
And they use these girls that the paris Is and the Brittany's is just punchlines every single day, and that shit would not fly today.
But I think it really impacts girls. It has impacted girls in a bigger way over the years.
And I think it's interesting.
I think that's on the one hand, you're like, well, wait a minute, we have the internet, it should be ten x work, yes, But I think then it was tabloids, right, And I think and those shows, I don't even think you could have like a fashion police now cutting down what people are wearing, right, And so I think there's It's funny because I was experiencing something the other day, just randomly, this woman who was just speaking so terribly to me and my team and it was so ridiculous,
and I was sort of like, not even like in our business, like it was just that. And I literally turn around and I go, I cannot believe in this day and age that you're actually speaking like this, like I actually yeah, because you actually can't get away with that anymore. And I think it's a really good point what you're saying, because I actually think that when we grew up, and I think when like twenty years ago, fifteen years ago, at the height of it, you could
say anything, you could do anything. There was no there was no ramifications for that. And I think now you do that, you say someone's hair is the wrong you give the wrong title.
You, I mean, you're canceled, right.
And for that, I am grateful and happy that my girls and my boy will grow up in.
A somewhat kind of world.
I mean, we still got a long long way to go, but we are making strides.
And so what Okay, So I think, just for our listeners, I think it's important to talk about So Nikki is younger than Paris by a few years. And again I think I, along with many people, have always felt like Nikki was the older sister, and I think now Paris is living her dream and her fairy to life, and I could not be happy, and I cannot love somebody more,
by the way, just the most magical person. It's important to talk about sisters, right because I have a sister, and I think you guys have such a beautiful relationship. And I think the thing is what I have seen over the years that's beautiful is that you talk to her and she talks to you exactly like you should. You're very straight, Pierre, No.
We are.
We speak like ten times a day. We are each other's biggest cheerleaders. I see some siblings who don't get on. That always makes me so sad because me too. For me, like sisters, it's such an unbreakable bond.
I agree and my sister. It's funny because everyone's always like, like my closest girlfriends, They're like, you don't ask us for anything. I'm like because of my sister, Like and I had Roger and I have Roger who's been with me thirty one years. So it's like when you have those two relationships that are so strong, I don't think you're as high maintenance as a friend. I think I
think that's why I kind of only children. A lot of times they're friends, right, their friends become their siblings, right.
So, but you're not that demanding of a friend because you have.
Your sister for all the hardcore.
Stuff hundred and your mom.
But yeah, so I think, But like I think you guys are in It's weird you're both in the quote unquote industry, but differently, right, Like I don't feel like you want to do anything she does, and I feel like she doesn't want to do anything you do. And I think that's also why it works so beautifully.
Yes, we totally had different ambitions and goals are whole life. And I used to get asked that all the time. Do you guys get jealous of each other? No, you don't have the same taste in clothing, embloys, in career paths like we are night and day.
You really do cheer for each other.
I also think your speech at the wedding was one of the greatest speeches I've ever heard, and I won't I won't say it for people to hear because it was private, but one of the highlights for me was like, who asked their family to go on their honeymoon?
You believe that the invite no less on actually no, I know the whole to the bachelorette party. I was like, you were so generous and kind. I would not have Mom near my bachelorette. She's just so easy going like that of Core I am, I will admit it, I am much more uptight.
I'm like, you's just what else I know?
I know, And that's why I think that I think she's the most misunderstood person.
I know.
I think less so now, but I think, like, I think she has just always been the sweetest, most supportive friend and just the sweetest kindest person has She's just always been that way, with a heart like bigger than she actually knows what to do with sometimes. But I think I think now kind of watching you in this role of like entrepreneural mom, I can't believe you have three kids happily married. It's just so nice to see and I feel like this is kind of like how
your life was supposed to be. But I think the best thing about you that I've always noticed is that you've never once not stayed true to exactly who you are, right Like, I just feel like you've never like tried to appeal to other people. You're just always like, this is my opinion. I'm sticking to it. I don't give to shut what other people say. This is my thought, right, And that's a really hard thing to do, to not be like swayed by like the people around you.
And I think my mom taught me that at a young age. She was like, who cares what everyone thinks? They're not paying your bills?
That was her favorite line, what do you care? You're right? Right?
I could I could see her saying that. I could, I could absolutely see herself.
There'll be lots of kathyisms throughout this podcast.
As there should be.
What I do want to talk about now is sort of like, so, what's kind of next? Like what's been your favorite part of your career so far? Like just sort of where you were like, this is my calling. I need to do more of this. This is what I meant to do, and I want to figure out how to do this more, like which facet of the industry, like what feels most natural to you?
I love the fashion stuff and the designing. I actually just shot my French Soul spring campaign.
Amazing. I feel like this is now a few this is a few years in now, right, Yes.
You probably this is not your language flats, but they're so cute.
Very much a ballerina flat girls.
I think they are the perfect combination of comfort and elegance.
I just fell in love with them.
Audrey Hepburn and her turtlements and her little cigarette pants.
But that's your whole thing.
You have this like Caroline Bassett Shakhness, that's their whole, like Nikki thing.
So that keeps me busy. But I would say the most rewarding work I do is with the Silton Foundation.
I want to talk about that because I think that's listen, I'm doing. Doing that kind of work I think is probably the most important thing that any of us do. So I do want to hear about that because I know that you've been a part of all kinds of different foundations, but I want to hear more about the Hilton Foundation.
So when my great grandfather died, he left his fortune to the Hilton Foundation, right, and since it's inception in nineteen forty.
Four, they have.
Donated nearly three billion dollars to nonprofit organizations. God so the mission statement is alleviating human suffering, and we do all sorts of work with early child development Foster youth homelesseners in Los Angeles. I love introducing my girls to this type of work because it was introduced to me so young and it's just sort of been in my DNA, and then they love it too. Like I took them two weekends ago to the synagogue my husband belongs to Uptown and we made meals.
For the community fridge.
So we sat there with all these families and it was really great, I mean, the kids involved, and we made sandwiches, fruit cups, ballads, water bottles, and we drove the food up to the community fridge in Harlem. And I don't know if you get familiar with this community fridge concept, amazing. So they're popping up all over the city. So they had one where in Harlem and it's on the street, like a huge fridge and.
People just take away.
So we unloaded all of the stuff into the fridge and we were sort of just like sitting there and watching and all these people just started coming and grabbing a sandwich or of water. To be able to introduce my kids to that.
I started the boys when they were about four and five and six and started to really kind of build that foundation of empathy and everything else. And them really understanding that the life they live is not a given and not expected and not It's not a given in this world, and there's many that don't. And I think there's nothing more important that we actually can do for our kids than to expose real world, real life to them as young as possible, because I always lead with that.
My parents would bring us down to the Union Rescue Mission Downtown LA almost every Christmas and Thanksgiving to feed the homeless, and it's it just it makes you feel so good to be able to help people, and my kids love doing it.
It's I think it's so important to keep them in it, and it also it also becomes that thing that they look forward to and it's a thing that they'll be driven by ultimately in their lives, which is the most important thing that we do as parents.
I think, Yes, I got really creative with my giving back. I recently joined the board of God's Love We Deliver Nice and I came on to the team and I said, I really want to engage my kids and the youth, create volunteer opportunities, and teach these kids the importance of giving back. So we did our inaugural kickoff at the Museum of ice Cream my kids, just like everything is about God's love, we deliver ice cream.
See.
But that's but it's great and I think it's that. I think it's such a great thing that we do, that that you do, and so I guess so the idea is that you can now work with multiple organizations right through this.
So that's that's amazing. And by the way, kids, it was all about animals.
I'm on the board of Animal Haven, which is a no kill shelter. Yes, and everything's about animals. But then I had kids, just something like ignited in me. It was like a moral obligation. Well it is, get involved, and well you do great work with baby to baby.
And I think you know what it is.
I think when you have kids and you're feeding them and you're putting a diaper on them, or you're just getting them a new sweater, you don't that's such a normal thing that when all of a sudden, you go, wait, they don't have shoes that fit, they don't have socks, they don't have a backpack for school, so they use a garbage bag that they keep all their stuff in. And when you and they eat their meals at their public school that they eat at and.
When school shuts down, they don't get food.
So it's like when you start to go down that and I think as a parent, it's like, yes, you don't have to be a parent to think about that, but I think once you are, it's like ten times more intensive that you feel.
As you said this, like.
Obligation as a human being to try and fix it and try and help however you can. I couldn't agree more. So, tell me what is next, and like what your dream is? Obviously you're living it, But do you ever think like, Okay, I still have this left to do or I still like I'd still like to do X, or do you just like say, I'm living in my moment and taking every day as it comes.
Well, having three kids now it is.
One hundred full time jobs.
No, but I got into the the kid's game.
Yeah, of course.
I just did a swimsuit collab with this cute brand that I found that my mom found on Instagram. It's called Sunhouse Children's Okay, and it's these two moms from the South cute and they have the most adorable line. And I did this cute collab of little girls and little Boy swimsuits and working on two fun fashion projects right now.
Good.
I'm very excited to see what you do because I just think you have a lot that you are doing and a lot that you'll keep doing. But I also think you're going to keep doing it like the nicky way. Like I also think that you're sort of calm, cool I think always brings a lot to anything, and I think that's I think that's why you are where you are and who you are. But I do love you madly. Go enjoy your kids.
Bye, Henny.
I want to thank Nikki for coming on the podcast and opening up about her life and her incredible foundation, the Hilton Foundation, which I'm so impressed by because there's nothing I love more than when people who can do and what an impact the Hilton Foundation is having and will continue to have for a very long time.
So many people.
I think something we haven't really talked about that much on the podcast, if at all, is commitment to philanthropic endeavors. And I think that as parents, one of the biggest things that we can do for our children is teach them as young as possible about empathy and giving back and just giving out your hand where you can and that it should be something that you look forward to and something that drives you. And I think that Nikki's talking about how important that is to her and to
her family. I think is such a great takeaway, honestly, And she really does do so much. She works really hard, she's so professional, and I meant it when I said, like, I've known her for twenty years and I swear she's just always together, always straight shooter, always kind, just like her mom and just like her sister, honestly, and they're such a nice family, and so I think it's really nice to kind of share a little bit more of who Nikki rothschild is. I still want to say, Nicki Yalton.
I want to thank our listeners as well. If you want more Climbing in Hales content, follow me on at Rachel Zoe and at Climbing in Heales pod on Instagram for more updates on upcoming guests episodes and I will see you next week.