The independent design game definitely isn't the easiest of hustles. So we're continually tickled pink by our friends that are doing it—elbow grease and all—on the New York fashion circuit. What's more impressive is that they're a) often super duper young and b) almost always armed with a funny story about how they fell into the business. As starting-out tales go, Yara of NYC-based label Nomia, has a pretty epic one. She was fresh out of studying art at college, working a non-profit gig when one day she decided to make a linen dress just for fun. A friend of hers saw the dress, fell in love with it and ended up wearing it on the job at a Barney's trunk show. Of course it caught the eye of one of the buyers and before she'd even thought about how the hell she'd make her own line, she'd bagged her first order from Barney's. The label is named after a nymph in Greek mythology, and if arcadian nymphs lived in New York they would probably be riding around on bicycles with crazy long legs, looking just as comfortably carefree and elegant as Yara. Nomia is four seasons old now, with fifteen styles in the new collection—our favorite for fall, a menswear-inspired LBD that you can dress you can dress up, down, tomboy tough or feminine pretty. Her emphasis has always been on making tailored, impeccably well-made pieces (everything is produced in New York) with a nod to subtler details, like the shifting lines on a lace-paneled dress, or the unexpected rustle and shine of evergreen taffeta. See pictures of the fall '08 collection after the jump.