Nina Garcia was born Ninotchka Garcia in Barranquilla, Colombia on May 3, 1965. She began her career in the fashion industry in the early 1980s, studying liberal arts at Boston University after graduating from the Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts. She later attended Ecole Superieure de la Mode in Paris and graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She worked in the public relations department for Perry Ellis and its then-designer, Marc Jacobs. She then moved to Mirabella as Assistant Stylist and Market Editor, until taking a position at Elle. She became Fashion Director of Elle in 2000. Nina left the Fashion Director position at Elle in April 2008, becoming… Editor-at-Large at the Magazine until the end of August. She became Fashion Director at Marie Claire on September 2, 2008. She is currently on TV as a judge in Bravo TV's Project Runway.