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Picture this: On your first day of college, you bump into a charming foreign exchange student from France during orientation — and it’s love at first sight. A relationship blossoms, and once he returns to his hometown in Dole, you find yourself traveling back and forth every summer to spend time with him, and vice versa. The summer you graduate, you move to Paris to be with him and begin your career as a freelance fashion artist, drawing illustrations of stunning outfits and beauty products for magazines like and.

Although this sounds like a romantic novel, it’s the story of how Clawson resident Nicole Jarecz met her husband, Kevin Nougarede, and began her career in the world’s fashion capital.

Jarecz, who moved to Paris in 2010 after graduating from the College for Creative Studies with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in fashion illustration, didn’t know a lick of French. “It’s funny, because my husband would never help me with French,” Jarecz says, adding that since they grew accustomed to speaking English together, switching to French was difficult. “I took a semester of French at Sorbonne University just to have a basis. … I’m pretty fluent now.”

They married in 2011 and held their wedding a year later at the Collegiate Church Notre-Dame, having their first daughter, Ella, in Paris two years later. Jarecz became a stay-at-home mom who did freelance work on the side. “It was really hard in the beginning, but now I can say that I found a really great balance,” she says.

To create her chic and fabulous fashion illustrations, Jarecz uses a variety of mediums, including colored pencils, markers, and watercolors. “It all depends on what the outfit is, what I see, and how I think it will be translated onto paper,” Jarecz says.

In 2016, Jarecz and her family moved back to Detroit to be closer to her parents, and she had her second child, Claire. That same year, she began doing illustrations for live fashion events at stores like Dior, Tiffany & Co., and Louis Vuitton before offering her services for private events such as weddings, baby showers, and corporate parties. Earlier this year, Jarecz provided her services during the NFL Draft in April at Somerset Collection’s Luxury Locker Room. She was hired by Coach to create designs on handbags and tags, painting countless Detroit Lions logos.

“It was a lot of fun — it’s not something that I typically would do,” Jarecz says. “But that’s why illustration is a great thing, because you can branch off and do something completely different.”

Around this time, Jarecz was also busy promoting her first book, , a rhyming book she wrote and illustrated that’s inspired by her time as a mom in Paris. There are three sections with pages of stylish mothers and daughters roaming the streets of Paris in the morning, evening, and night, visiting the market, walking past the Eiffel Tower, and standing on Avenue Montaigne in front of Chanel, where Jarecz and her daughter used to walk every Sunday. The book is in English with French translations at the bottom of nearly every page. Jarecz says she wrote this book as a keepsake for her daughters.

“I hope that the book inspires them to know that they can be whatever they want in this life and that pursuing a creative path is possible,” Jarecz says. “I hope the book inspires young girls everywhere.”

Locally, Jarecz’s book can be found at Flyleaf in Grosse Pointe Farms, in Detroit, and in Bloomfield Hills. You can also purchase it online from Amazon and other vendors. For a signed copy, reach Jarecz via email at nicolejarecz@gmail.com.

This story originally appeared in the August 2024 issue of ������ Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of ������ Detroit at a local retail outlet. Our will be available on Aug. 6.