A Beautiful Purpose
8/28/07
By: Ellice Kibler
When I was thirteen I was the girliest girl of them all. And I have to admit that I still devour Vogue and W like a voracious teenager looking for the hottest styles to adorn my very un-Giselesque, 5’4” frame this season. So you can imagine the thrill I got when The Health Chic stumbled upon Nikki Gersten, a self proclaimed former fashion diva herself and now the public relations representative for the creme de la creme of organic and natural beauty fashion.
Nikki has been in the PR industry for seventeen years, catering mostly to the beauty, fashion, and fitness industries. But she’ll let you know that she’s always yearned to move from her native Manhattan to Portland, OR, and three years ago she did. After selling her own boutique PR agency, Shop PR, she decided to pack up and schlep her worldly possessions and talent for promoting across the country.
After moving to Portland, Gersten became educated about the toxic effects of some of the products her former company promoted, and made a conscious decision to switch the focus of her new business, Chartreuse PR, LLC, to a more environmentally-friendly clientele.
As soon as she had set her intent Nikki found herself virtually falling into accounts that fulfilled her desire to bring “green living” to the attention of the mainstream.
Still representing fashion, beauty, and fitness, Nikki now promotes clients like the uber-hip hair stylist to the stars and founder of John Masters Organics, Mr. Masters himself. She also represents Pacifica, a decadent natural bath and body care company that uses natural and organic ingredients and adheres to a rare integrity that you’d be hard pressed to find in the industry; and an artisan driven light fixtures company, School House Lighting, who is revamping their line to fit California’s strict new standards for in-house lighting.
Nikki also informed me that both the New York and Paris fashion shows have dedicated a whole section of their shows to “green” fashion. Haute couture with a conscience, sounds like a slice of heaven to me.
Since she feels she is still a novice in this whole “green living” concept, Nikki hopes her newbie status will draw others who feel like they fall short of the ideal. And because she’s in a position to light up an industry that is still somewhat overshadowed by it’s mainstream counterparts, I think she’s just the woman for the job!
So for all the divas out there who are desperate for an upgrade from their Birkenstocks (not that we don’t love ‘em!), keep an eye and an ear out for Nikki Gersten, she’s in with all the “trendy ones” who love the planet as much as you do.
