Nicole's white dress is from Carilin Vaile's green label line and is made of bamboo. She is wearing her own vegan Stella McCartney boots. She purchased her earrings ($90) and necklace ($120) from Green Rohini. They are dried leaves dipped in gold and recycled silver by "Laura Elizabeth".
Interview: Nicole Narain
Tough Yet Vulnerable, Nicole Narain Starts a New Chapter in the Story of Her Life
One Strong Woman
Photos by Steven James May
Recently, Nicole Narain and a girlfriend were hiking through one of the rustic canyon trails in the hills that fringe the Los Angeles basin. "We turned a corner," she recalls, her voice still tinged with the awe and fear she felt, "and there was a wolf." The two women froze in their tracks. So did the wolf. "He was probably as scared of us as we were of him," Nicole says with an uneasy laugh. Finally, the animal turned and disappeared into the undergrowth.
"I love nature," Nicole says in summation. "But you just don't know what might be lurking in the bushes."
That incident might well serve as a fitting metaphor for the life of the Playmate, model, and actress. She's lived her 34 years with an adventurous, outgoing spirit, so open to adventure that sometimes, she readily admits, the consequences of her actions have turned out more unnervingly perilous than she expected.
Nicole was born in Chicago to a Guyanese mother and an East Indian father who split when she was little. That may go some way to explaining the fact that she felt rootless as a child. "If you asked me what I wanted to be back then," she says, "I was the girl who couldn't answer that question." She left home at the age of 16, eventually finishing her high school diploma in California, then returning to Chicago. "I was on my own, busy just trying to survive."
Though she may have felt bereft of any real family support, she did inherent one important gift: a natural beauty and grace from her mother, who had been a model back in British Guyana. Nicole herself began modeling in Chicago. Back in 1998, she was discovered by an editor there from Playboy, and began appearing in special issues. That eventually led to her being chosen as Miss January 2002. That success, however, had its own wolf lurking in the undergrowth, the photo session taking place on September 11, 2001. "We were shooting some of the photos in a jet," she recalls, "and needless to say we had to call it quits that day."
The overwhelmingly successful reception of that issue led Nicole to leave Chicago permanently for Los Angeles, where she admittedly reveled in the scene. "I did a lot of partying and socializing, and not a whole lot of honing in on my craft," she says, summing up her first four years on the West Coast. Unfortunately, her celebrity lifestyle quickly led to scandal, too. Her natural beauty drew the attention of Irish actor Colin Farrell, and the two began a passionate relationship that the duo immortalized in a steamy X-rated video that somehow leaked and led to a stressful she-said-he-said legal tussle played out in the media in 2005.
"Every day to this day," says Nicole, struggling to sum up the whole complicated situation, "I still feel the trauma of it. It doesn't go away."
Nonetheless, from those bad times Nicole has since worked mightily to bring only good things into her life. "I've learned from it and moved on," she says. "I got rid of what I had equated with the glamorous life. It wasn't cute anymore. I got rid of a lot of the people who weren't really helping me be a better person. I've learned from it and moved on."
Today, Nicole Narain leads a quieter, more focused life, making the occasional celebrity appearance and developing her skills as an entertainer while allowing herself the time and energy to explore other passions, including photography and painting.
She still enjoys modeling, of course, and her recent sessions for Envi-Image.com show a recently turned-34-year-old Nicole who looks more relaxed, at peace with herself, and beautiful than ever. "And the earthy-friendly clothes and makeup we wore for that shoot were amazing," she says
Perhaps for the first time in her life, too, she's begun to answer the question of who she is and what she wants out of her life. "I've filled nine journals, and right now I really want to concentrate on turning them into an autobiography of my life so far. I've got a story to tell.
"Now," she continues, "I'm ready for the first time in my life to take control, to deal with some difficult issues. I'm a lot tougher than anyone can imagine."
So look for Nicole literally to start a new chapter in her life. "I'm scared, but I'm ready," she says. And this time, any wolves lurking in the undergrowth had better watch out!
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