Dressed to the Hilton – why Nicky Hilton Rothschild is designing party frocks

Nicky Hilton Rothschild opens the door to her suite at London’s Claridge’s hotel with a breezy “hello”. I am taken aback. I was expecting a Hilton Rothschild squad as befits a scion of the Hilton family who married James Rothschild of the banking dynasty in 2015 wearing custom-made Valentino. But there are no extras as we step into the living room, just her friend and collaborator the fashion designer Rebecca Vallance – a sleek, polished Australian who launched her namesake womenswear line in 2011. 

Vallance has flown into London from Australia to launch a joint collection of party dresses to be rolled out internationally through various retailers, including Harrods, on 1 October. Dressed in one of her own suits, she cuts an impressive figure: tall, slim, blonde hair falling to her waist in perfectly tonged waves. She’s a walking billboard for her aesthetic: slick with a hint of sexiness. 

“I’m also wearing one of her jackets,” says Hilton Rothschild, now 40, as she falls into a velvet tub chair. Blonde, slightly tanned, with piercing blue eyes, she is instantly recognisable as one half of the iconic Hilton duo, the younger sister of Paris, and a team who came to represent a quintessential brand of early-1990s US style. Today the look is more demure than the one that characterised her early 20s: “It’s basically skinny jeans, a T-shirt and a really nice fitted blazer with a ballerina flat,” she says, with a Californian accent that takes in her bicoastal existence (the family is based in New York). “But I’m a style chameleon and change based on my surroundings. So when I’m in LA, I embrace more laid-back boho chic sundresses with gladiator sandals, and when I’m in London I love to dress up.”

Hilton Rothschild’s love of dress-up – coupled with her credentials as a fashion entrepreneur – was what bonded the two women. “Me, my mum and my sister have all been wearing Rebecca for many years,” she says. Her mother, Kathy Hilton, joined the US reality TV show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in 2023. Sister Paris is the Y2K It girl who catapulted to fame with Nicole Richie in the TV show The Simple Life. As part of a dynasty that was photographed obsessively at parties throughout the early 2000s, Hilton Rothschild might have been expected to follow her sister into reality television, but rather than crave the public attention, Nicky (her full name is Nicholai) set her sights on fashion, attending classes at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology and working at several labels before establishing her own fashion and jewellery businesses.

I’m a bit of a bow addict

She and Vallance got in contact in 2022 because, as Hilton Rothschild jokes, she’s “a bit of a bow addict”. Having spotted a friend wearing one of Vallance’s staple bow dresses, Hilton Rothschild tried to track it down. She failed, but DM’d the designer directly who had it delivered to her. “I wore it to a God’s Love We Deliver fundraiser as I’m a board member [the charity cooks and home-delivers more than four million medically tailored meals to New Yorkers living with severe illness] and the friendship started from there,” Hilton Rothschild recalls.

The Hilton heiress is an evening-dress obsessive. “For some women it’s shoes or handbags, but for me it is party dresses. All I have brought with me to London is Rebecca Vallance dresses and Manolos – and I especially love them in the holiday season. Vallance laughs. “That’s some compliment, right?” she says. They share the same aesthetic preferences. “We’re quite similar. We are both strong individuals, we’re both obsessed with our kids and family, and we both have the same work ethic. The collection embodies Nicky. It is very sophisticated with a cool edge. It’s an uptown-girl viewpoint.” 

Hilton Rothschild cuts in excitedly: “I can’t wait for people to see it. There’s lots of embellishments, crystals and sparkles – and bows.”

“Yeah, we have hand-embroidered diamanté bow appliqué designs,” Vallance repeats, laughing. “And lots of beautiful fabrics: silk georgette, bonded crepe, corded lace with sequin and wet-look sequin – it’s all very party.”

Working on the collection, the pair kept in touch daily over Zoom. “We started with moodboarding, then we worked into silhouettes. Nicky would be like, ‘I like the skirt of this, or how about we lengthen it to the floor.’ It was genuinely very collaborative. Nicky gets it because she has been a designer.”

Hilton Rothschild honed her fashion sensibility from a young age. “It sounds cliché but it definitely started as a little girl playing in my mum’s closet,” she says. “My mom had a boutique in LA on Sunset Plaza called The Staircase when I was young. I worked there for fun and I loved merchandising everything. I always knew I wanted to do something in fashion, whether in styling, in the store or a fashion magazine. I loved every aspect of it.” 

Although her sister Paris has walked for Versace, and has been a regular at fashion week for years, Nicky was always the fashion person within the Hilton household. “Whereas my sister was more of a tomboy who wanted to play sports and couldn’t care less about clothes, I love the beauty of clothes and jewellery, and the whole process of getting ready.” 

London is a special place for Hilton Rothschild. She got married at Kensington Palace. And while Claridge’s is not part of her own family’s hotel group, she was compelled to stage the launch here because the hotel makes for such a great set. “We had to shoot the looks here. This is my favourite hotel in the world. I’ve been coming to Claridge’s since I was a baby. I stayed here during my wedding and I have so many incredible memories here,” Hilton Rothschild says. “It’s the perfect backdrop for the dresses.”

London is also a special place for Vallance. “I’m having a full-circle moment because 14 years ago, when we launched the brand, I was living and designing here,” she reminisces. “Then we showed in Paris for the first season and were picked up by Harvey Nichols throughout the Middle East. I knew I was on to something because it usually takes years to be noticed by those kinds of retailers. So it’s gone on. Our biggest market is Europe, then the USA, Australia and the Middle East. It’s busy.” Of her target market, she says: “We are designing for women from when they first drop off their children at school in the morning to the evening – I love that fashion has the ability to empower and instil confidence.” 

Both admit their wardrobes have changed over the years. Hilton Rothschild has three children: Lily-Grace, Teddy and Chasen. Vallance, 43, is married to financier David Gasan of the Gasan Group, and is mother to Matthias and Rafael. “You will usually find me in jeans and a T-shirt or a shirt,” Vallance says of her off-duty look. Adds Hilton Rothschild: “As I’ve gotten older, I’m really about buying less but just great pieces – things that really stand the test of time and that will be in my closet for many years to come. The days of It bags and trendy things – I’m so past that.” 

She does love vintage. “I used to go to places in London like Rellik. Oh, and Portobello Road is great for jewellery. I love the unique factor, as no one is going to have it,” says Hilton Rothschild. And she still can’t resist a little Y2K throwback. “I’ve been online lately, as I have a new obsession with vintage Fendi baguette bags. There’s been some late-night scrolling. And Chanel jackets from places like 1stdibs… and vintage lockets.”

As I leave, the pair are getting ready for a girls’ trip to Cannes and are awaiting a fitting of two custom party dresses Vallance has designed for the occasion – a glimpse of what is to come. “It will be great as no one knows we’re working together. The look? “Cinderella meets Grace Kelly,” Hilton Rothschild says. I imagine it has a bow…