TWIST AND SNIP

It’s an understatement to say that Nickie Quibol’s fingers are fast. The founder of clothing company Twisted Cuts, Quibol snips notches into a men’s T-shirt and then weaves strips of fabric in and out of openings without missing a beat.

“This one’s going to be made into a dress,” she explains as she snips at the shirt with her scissors. At first, it looks like a regular T-shirt, but the dress quickly begins to take shape.

The hobby-turned-business features fashions that Quibol cuts, twists and ties herself. She started by cutting collars and backs out of T-shirts, and over time, her ideas and inspiration led to a wider variety of designs.

“It was just something I used to do with my own shirts because I hated wearing (regular) T-shirts,” says Quibol of her cutting skills.

Her personal interest soon led to family and friends asking for custom designs — and after a while, they urged her to launch her own enterprise.

Since its beginnings in 2007, Twisted Cuts has garnered more than 6,000 followers on Instagram.

The business’ prolific social media presence is the result of Quibol’s one-woman-show, as she does all the designing, marketing and back-of-the-house duties. Not formally trained in business, Quibol found those back-of-the-house tasks were the hardest part — her favorite, of course, is the designing and creating.

“My stuff definitely didn’t look like this the first time. I cut a lot of stuff that I ruined because it just didn’t work out,” she admits.

Through trial and error, she found her favorite fabric to work with — a cotton-polyester blend — that is soft to the touch, but also stretchy enough to cut and manipulate. Her product line now includes shirts, dresses and hats, as well as one of her newest additions: bikinis in various styles named after the Hawaiian Islands. It’s something she’s been working on for quite some time. “I finally perfected it,” she says.

Quibol also does custom orders (email twistedcuts@ymail.com), and in her words, “I’ll cut anything.”

Keep up with Twisted Cuts online at twistedcuts.storenvy.com or follow it on Instagram (@twistedcuts).