By Lillian Gissen For Dailymail.Com

Published: 07:49 EDT, 17 May 2022 | Updated: 11:39 EDT, 17 May 2022

A banking heiress who spent her teenage years dreaming of forging a career in fashion has transformed herself from socialite-about-town into a successful style CEO after launching a brand that markets pricey pajama-style dresses as elegant must-have wardrobe items.  

Nell Diamond spent years being best known by her famous surname, given to her by her father, disgraced banker Bob Diamond, who was infamously ousted from his role as CEO of Barclays in 2012 after the bank was fined $453million for submitting false reports.

However the style-obsessed socialite, 34, has now found fame in the fashion industry as the founder of an A-list-approved, multi-million-dollar brand that markets nightgown-esque dress designs as everyday wear. 

After originally following in her father's footsteps and landing a job in finance, she soon realized that her calling was actually in fashion.

Nell originally launched Hill House Home, a bedding, bath, and apparel brand, back in 2016, and she soon built up a dedicated group of customers. However it wasn't until t hree years later, when the company dropped the 'Nap Dress' - a $125 pinafore-styled dress meant to resemble that of a nightgown - that her status as one of the industry's most successful stars was truly cemented. 

Nell Diamond - daughter of disgraced banker Bob Diamond - has turned her teen style obsession into a multi-million-dollar business by selling pajamas as dresses

But how did Nell go from being the heiress of a banker to a fashion mogul - despite her father (pictured together) facing a serious scandal in 2012, which forced him to resign from his job at Barclays?

From how she launched a successful business amid her family facing severe scrutiny to how she now balances being a mom to three young children and running a million-dollar company, FEMAIL has broken down Nell's extraordinary journey

The piece of clothing highlights the comfortability and coziness of pajamas, but elevates it to a stylish and classy dress that can be worn out and about. 

It has become wildly successful since it first dropped in 2019 - earning the company millions of dollars and launching it into worldwide success.

The gown now comes in many different lengths, colors, and patterns - and has been worn by celebrities like Emmy Rossum, Princess Eugenie, Mindy Kaling.

But how did Nell go from being the heiress of a banker to a fashion mogul - despite her father facing a serious scandal in 2012, which forced him to resign from his job at Barclays?

From how she launched a successful business amid her family facing severe scrutiny to how she now balances being a mom to three young children and running a million-dollar company, FEMAIL has broken down Nell's extraordinary journey. 

How Nell's love of fashion as a child blossomed into the idea for her million-dollar business decades later

Nell was born in London in 1988. Throughout her childhood, her father Bob, 70, worked at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, before landing his role at Barclays. Her mom, Jennifer, gave up her job as a product engineer to raise Nell and her two brothers. 

As her father worked his his way up the corporate ladder, Nell recalled moving around a lot as a child - but all the while she lived a life of extreme privilege and wealth, thanks to her dad's success within the world of finance. 

'Moving so much, my bedroom was like my little sanctuary,' she told The Cut recently. 'And I really valued waking up in a space that felt like me.'

After her dad joined Barclays - Britain's second largest banking group - in 1996, he was soon appointed as the chief executive of corporate and investment banking and wealth management. In 2005, he became Barclays PLC's president, while also remaining chief executive of Barclays Capital.

In 2008, Forbes reported that Diamond raked in a staggering $21 million in the previous year - making him 'one of the best-paid executives in Europe' at the time. 

However for Nell, it was fashion, not finance, that peaked her interest during her childhood.  

From a young age, the designer said she had a knack for fashion - describing herself as a 'girly-girl' - and a dream to move to America.

Nell's parents were both American, but she was raised in Europe. However, her knowledge of the country came to her aid when U.S. clothing brand Abercrombie & Fitch opened its first store in London.

Nell was born in London in 1988. Her mom, Jennifer, gave up her job as a product engineer to raise Nell and her two brothers, while her dad became Barclays PLC's president in 2005. She is pictured with her mom as a baby

From a young age, the designer said she had a knack for fashion, and her first job was with Abercrombie & Fitch. She is pictured as a baby

She studied English literature at Princeton, and after graduating, she got a job at Deutsche Bank in New York. But wearing suits to work every day made her realize her passion for retail. She is pictured as a baby

The company was on the hunt for American employees living in the U.K., and she soon got a job working in the clothing boutique - keeping it a secret from them that she never actually lived in the states.

'I was obsessed. I had never lived in America. It was iconic,' she said. 'I can see how what I was doing then - which, by the way, I felt guilty about and thought was not something that a smart, educated woman would do - was research.'

As a teen, she would spend much of her time studying fashion, and recalled spending hours sitting in a local Topshop.

'They had this huge store in Oxford Circus and I used to literally go every Saturday to this huge Topshop and it was like church,' she told E! News last year.

'It was the most incredible thing for me to go and see all the new products they had, but more importantly, to see the shoppers there. This is before real social media.

'I used to go there and watch how people style things, see how people dress. It was just so electric and exciting.'

She studied English literature at Princeton, and after graduating, she got a job at Deutsche Bank in New York - something she was very proud of.

'There’s a huge part of me that has always been trying to fight against this perception of me as this, like, super-silly little girl who wears all the bows and frilly things and blue eyeliner,' she explained to The Cut.

'And it was very important to me that I could get that job, and all the quantitative stuff, and pass all the regulated exams.

'Nobody can tell me the regulator knows who my dad is, that I passed that because of who my dad is.'

However, the strict dress code - she often wore Ann Taylor suits to work - left her yearning for a chance to get back into fashion.

'It hurt. It physically hurt. No offense to Ann Taylor,' she joked of having to wear suits every day.

'It was really hard, and I also felt guilty for it being so hard. Like, it doesn’t matter. But it does. If I can’t feel like myself, I can’t do anything.'

According to Nell, working at the bank helped her realize her true passion for retail.

She told E!: 'Even though I loved my team, I loved who I worked for, just nothing made me feel as excited as the world of retail did.'

She worked there for two years before she left to study at Yale’s School of Management. 

Being the daughter of a famous banker had its perks - she was often invited to the top clubs in New York City and had scored a few celebrity friends.

Being the daughter of a famous banker had its perks - she was often invited to the top clubs in New York City and had scored a few celebrity friends. She is pictured in a yacht in March

She worked there for two years before she left to study at Yale’s School of Management. She is pictured in 2010 (left) and 2014 (right)

In July 2012, she made headlines when she defended her dad on social media after he was accused of manipulating the bank's Libor, writing that two men who had spoken out against her father should 'hold her d**k.' She is pictured with her dad in 2017

In July 2012, the socialite made headlines when she defended her dad on social media after he was accused of manipulating the bank's Libor.

Libor is the rate at which banks lend each other money, and can 'affect how much interest ordinary people pay on everything from credit card debt to home mortgages and student loans,' CNN reported. 

Her father stepped down as Barclays' chief executive in disgrace amid a storm of outrage, after it emerged that the bank had lied to make profits and maintain a steady reputation during the financial crisis. 

The bank was fined $453 million by U.S. and British regulators for submitting false reports on interbank borrowing rates between 2005 and 2009. It was the biggest fine ever leveled by the UK’s Financial Services Authority. 

At the time, the leader of the Labor Party, Ed Miliband, slammed Nell's father, stating that he was not the man 'to lead the change that Barclays needed,' while George Osborne, the chancellor of the Exchequer, said firing Bob was 'the first step needed toward a new culture of responsibility in British banking.'

'George Osborne and Ed Miliband,' she tweeted in response to their statements. 'You can go ahead and [hold my d**k].'

She then deleted the tweet and added in another, 'No one in the world I admire more than my dad. 16 years building Barclays. Shame to see the mistakes of few tarnish the hard work of so many.' 

After speaking out online, Nell was publicly criticized by media outlets all over the world.

'The experience of hearing people say the worst thing they could ever possibly say about you is in many ways a freeing experience. I can only be who I am,' she recalled to The Cut.

'Because people, you know, they’re gonna think what they think no matter what. People have strong reactions to me.

'That’s always been the case. It’s something I talk about in therapy all the time - but I can’t control other people’s reactions to me.

'I can only think about how I act and behave and what my values are. Obviously, it still gets to me when people DM me mean things or whatever. But anything mean anyone’s ever thought about me, I’ve thought about myself.' 

Bob now runs Atlas Mara, an African financial-services company in which he vested a cool $20 million of his own money.

Turning a nightgown into a fashion must-have: How Nell came up with the idea for her brand - and made it a viral sensation with creation of the Nap Dress 

While attending Yale's School of Management, Nell came up with the idea for Hill House - which she named after the Nantucket home that she and her family would visit during the summers as a child.

'I wanted to create a brand that made people feel something - the way I felt something about Topshop, about Gap and Abercrombie,' she explained to The Cut.

'After my MBA internship between years one and two, my passion for this idea was just too big to ignore,' she also remembered to E! News.

'I had also gotten rid of some of, I think, the early, very big fears that I had about the business, and I felt secure in my ability to at least give it a chance, so I would say business school ended up really convincing me that this would be a feasible idea.'

She started by pitching a bedding line, since she said 'the bedroom is such an important space.'

While attending Yale's School of Management, Nell came up with the idea for Hill House - which she named after the Nantucket home that she and her family would visit during the summers as a child

The brand first forced on bedding, but then branched out into apparel. In 2019, the company dropped the 'Nap Dress' - a $125 pinafore-styled dress meant to resemble that of an elevated nightgown

The piece of clothing (pictured) combines the comfortability and coziness of pajamas, but elevates it to a stylish and classy dress that can be worn out and about 

She explained: 'The Nap Dress came about because I was desperate for something to wear around my house that I felt presentable and great in, that made me feel like myself'

The gown now comes in many different lengths, colors, and patterns - and has been worn by celebrities like Emmy Rossum, Princess Eugenie, Mindy Kaling. Princess Eugenie is seen wearing a Nap Dress in February 2021

Nell said to The Cut: 'Even in my dorm room in college, I was like, "If I don’t put up my weird pink feather boas and make it all pretty, my day is not gonna be great."

Nell is now gearing up to release a line of Hill House swimwear

'I wanted to help people really take charge of those daily things and make them better and more beautiful and more fun.'

Jennifer McFadden, associate director of Yale’s entrepreneurial programs, instantly fell in love with the idea - and with Nell's initiative.

'I think she really intuitively understood that she was going to build an empire from day one and singularly set forward to do that,' Jennifer explained. 

'She is just probably one of the most natural, talented marketers I’ve ever met.'

Nell officially launched the company in 2016, and from the start, she knew she wanted to expand to sleepwear.

She soon dropped a line of traditional pajamas - containing button-up shirts and matching pants - but they weren't much of a success.

But as someone who often wore dresses as a kid, she began to focus on combing her love for dressing up with her love for being comfortable.

She then came up with the Nap Dress - after studying vintage nightgowns and tweaking them for functionality, comfort, and practicality. 

'I've always been a dress girl. I find pants incredibly uncomfortable,' she told E! News. 

'Honestly, the Nap Dress came about because I was desperate for something to wear around my house that I felt presentable and great in, that made me feel like myself.

'I went through so many phases. I tried my college sorority T-shirts. I tried my husband's boxers and a big, cable-knit sweater, and I would just not feel great.

'We spent quite a long time developing this product that felt like it flattered across a range of body types and made people really feel kind of like they were dressed at the same time.'

'I understand as the CEO of a consumer business, shopping and retail are massive industries that fuel the economy of every single country, so you can be intelligent and really interested in retail and shopping,' she said

 She also recently started expanding to stores rather than just online, and opened a Hill House pop-up shop on Mercer Street in New York City

The mogul owns a $5.8 million townhouse in Manhattan's West Village. She is pictured in the house

After dropping the dress in 2019, website visitors went from practically zero in March 2020 to 744,505 a month in June 2021, said Jim Corridore to The Cut - a senior insights manager with Similarweb, which tracks online traffic. 

According to Shopify, when the brand released a new set of Nap Dresses in February 2021, it sold a staggering $1,000,000 worth of inventory in just 12 minutes.

She has teamed up with influencers to held promote the brand, which had a large impact on its success.  

'If somebody follows me on Instagram, they might think like, "Oh, she is very girly. I'm not going to be able to do that because I'm not that style or whatever." And I know that, I know that I like love bows and love - you know, I'm always wearing dresses and hair accessories and all those things,' she explained to Shopify.

'But at the same time, I also have friends who wear the Nap Dress with their Converse and like an amazing leather jacket and just looks so cool in a way that I never would look cool and I want to show that too. 

Nell's next Nap Dress venture will see her expanding the range to include swimwear. She is pictured wearing one of the new designs while holding her daughter

'So influencers have kind of been key to that strategy to really show us how they live and breathe. We also will repost a lot of customers in our communities photos because we love seeing how people kind of style their product and live with that product.

'I've always thought it totally didn't make sense to send these like elaborate, like very strict guidelines for working with an influencer if they're going to be touching your brand, because the whole point of it is to see the collaboration, to see how this person who has a specific brand voice puts that brand voice on your product, and that will allow people to kind of see the product in a new lens.' 

Despite her immense success, Nell would not describe herself as your stereotypical CEO - especially since she hates to take risks.

'I'm definitely not your typical entrepreneur,' she told E! News, 'I really don't like uncertainty and I'm very risk-averse.

'Roller coasters are not for me. I'm like, "I don't need to risk anything here," and entrepreneurship is all about risk-taking and all about uncertainty.'

But she's happy to show other young women that shopping is not just a superficial activity. 

She added: 'When I was younger, it was telegraphed to me that things like shopping were not serious, right?

'And those weren't things that should be interesting to a serious or intelligent person. And now, I understand as the CEO of a consumer business, shopping and retail are massive industries that fuel the economy of every single country, so you can be intelligent and really interested in retail and shopping.

'You can be serious and be all those things, and you can also be a little not serious, and that's OK, too.'

Nell, who owns a $5.8 million townhouse in the West Village of Manhattan, is now gearing up to release a line of Hill House swimwear. 

She also recently started expanding to stores rather than just online, and opened a Hill House pop-up shop on Mercer Street in New York City.

A deep dive into Nell's personal life - how she found the love of her life and became a mom

In 2014, she married financer Teddy Wasserman, who is 10 years her senior. The pair met at a mutual friend's birthday party, and quickly fell in love

They tied the knot at the Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc in France. She donned a stunning strapless white dress - which was made from 35 meters of silk, featured a sweetheart neckline, and was embroidered with delicate feathered designs - at the wedding

Not so delicate was the 15-foot-long train, which was so expansive it required multiple people to carry it. A long transparent veil completed the bride's classically elegant ensemble

In 2014, Nell married financer Teddy Wasserman, who is 10 years her senior. The pair met at a mutual friend's birthday party, and quickly fell in love.

They tied the knot at the Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc in the South of France. It was reported that her dad, Bob, hired the wedding planners behind William and Kate’s Buckingham Palace reception in 2011 to help make the day a dream come true.

She donned a stunning strapless white dress - which was made from 35 meters of silk, featured a sweetheart neckline, and was embroidered with delicate feathered designs - at the wedding.

Not so delicate was the 15-foot-long train, which was so expansive it required multiple people to carry it.

A long transparent veil completed the bride's classically elegant ensemble. 

With the Mediterranean just a stone's throw from the resort, guests - including Nell's longtime friend and fellow Princeton graduate and the daughter of Doctor Oz, Daphne Oz - spent the weekend swimming and sunbathing to their hearts' desire.  

Nell was walked down the aisle by her father to the waterfront, where she and Teddy were married under a vine-covered pergola at sunset. 

She and Teddy have since welcomed a son together, named Henry, five, and twins named Willow and Sebastian, one

And giving birth to her son Henry one year after launching her company actually helped her come up with the idea of the Nap Dress

'I was spending a lot of time doing things at home, and I wanted to feel great while I was doing them,' she recalled to E! News. 'I think that your clothes can have such a powerful impact on your self-esteem. I wanted to feel great and be comfortable'

Now, her main priority is raising her kids. She told The Cut: 'The number one most important thing to me in my life is my family'

Later on in the evening, Nell changed into a Greek goddess-inspired one-shoulder dress with a cutout at the torso designed by longtime friend Prabal Gurung. 

She also told E!: 'At the end of the day, I have to make sure [my kids are] clean and they've had food and that they go to sleep. That perspective has really saved me from a lot of stress and a lot of heartache'

She and Teddy have since welcomed a son together, named Henry, five, and twins named Willow and Sebastian, one.

And giving birth to her son Henry one year after launching her company actually helped her come up with the idea of the Nap Dress.

'I was spending a lot of time doing things at home, and I wanted to feel great while I was doing them,' she recalled to E! News.

'I think that your clothes, as well as your home, can have such a powerful impact on your self-esteem and so, I wanted to feel great and be comfortable.'

Now, her main priority is raising her kids. She concluded to The Cut: 'The number one most important thing to me in my life is my family.'

She also told E!: 'At the end of the day, it's 6 o'clock, I have to put three humans... I have to make sure they're clean and they've had food and that they go to sleep. 

'And that perspective has really saved me, I think, from a lot of stress and a lot of heartache around career, around all sorts of things.

'I think that I definitely feel like the generation that I'm a part of was taught that our careers define us in every way and I think that having kids has reminded me that we are so much more than our output.'

"Pajama styled dresses?" I'm pretty sure that's ca...

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