Nina Ricci (Q2218)
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French fashion house
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Nina Ricci |
French fashion house |
Statements
1963
head designer
2019
designer
designer
2022
creative director
creative director
2018
co-creative director
2018
co-creative director
The recap season four: Emily Cooper could be looking at a whole new life in Rome, swapping the City of Light for the City of Seven Hills, and also has decisions, decisions, decisions galore because she has to face pursuing a newfound romance with Marcello or reuniting with Gabriel. (I mean: Nice work if you can get it.) Meanwhile…. Uh-oh. Oops. Sorry! Wrong season four I am talking about here. I do of course mean Harris Reed’s fourth outing for the house of Nina Ricci. It’sHarrisin Paris that we should be discussing.So,anotherrecap then: Season number four sees Reed growing into his role really rather nicely. Backstage, he acknowledged that a lot has happened personally—his 2023 marriage, more time than he ever dreamed of spending in Paris, as well as a new home in London—and professionally and that time has given him a greater affinity with the city and what it means to be designing for it and, to some degree, in its image.“There’s still the black, the white, the bows, and the polka dots,” Reed said, “I liked the idea of not letting go where I started. Yet when it comes to doing this collection, I really think I was starting to understand who the woman was and where she was going. As someone who is between Paris and London and is always traveling, I realized it was about intention.”What that meant collection-wise is that Reed retained his love of a statement-making suit but allowed it to sigh and soften, which was a smart move; where once were super-dramatic shoulders (now they’re simply dramatic), he brought a fresh and light fluidity, adding a back-baring cowl drape to the rear of his jackets. As for his equally statement-making exuberant evening looks, where he used his much-loved polka dots on a stretch-jersey lace, he embraced greater body diversity in sizing. (Reed remains one of the very few designers in Paris willing to have that conversation—and act upon it.)He still loves the idea of clothes making an entrance. But perhaps as a sign of his increasing comfort with Nina Ricci, he rethought the pyrotechnics. Instead it might mean one trick—for instance, a plissé panel of organza that moved upward to veil the face or fanned out at the back from an otherwise svelte black evening dress.To tell the story of his season four, Reed was, he said, revisiting the era of the house from around 1962 to 1965.
This resulted in the snappy belted short trenches and the equally snappy safari jackets shown, in 2025 and not 1965 style, with teeny-tiny, blink-and-you’d-miss-them shorts. Yet that’s an intriguing era to be drawn to, the period when a very done formality was about to ebb away into the freewheelin’ fluidity of the late 1960s, then ’70s, and beyond. This coming spring is coincidentally offering similar choices: liberated gauzy softness or dressed to the hilt. As for Reed, he sees no reason why you can’t have both.
27 September 2024
Harris Reed noted how he’s been working up to this collection. “I think I can confidently say, hate or love it, this is the Nina woman for me in 2024,” he said. “She is this fierce French woman from an outside perspective, but that’s what makes it me and makes it hopefully special.”There’s been some major code shifting at Nina Ricci since Reed took the helm just over a year ago. So flamboyant! So luscious! Never has the swish socialite we tend to associate with the house felt so haute. What’s more, his ongoing and admirable commitment to casting a broad mosaic of models (sizewise but also trans and nonbinary) proves how designers can exert a positive influence beyond the clothes.If his first two collections meant recalibrating our perception of Nina Ricci, today’s lineup somehow fell back on played-out Parisian tropes. An ’80s polka-dot minidress or a flounced tweed jacket with hot pants might end up as millennial party or red-carpet dressing, but they added little to the evolution of the brand.To be sure, flowing chiffon plus glossy mock-croc leather equaled femme fatale seduction, while tailored pinstripe suits created a masculine counterpoint to the curvier draped gowns. Where the bows from previous seasons were poufy, new iterations were as rigid as helicopter blades, outlining a skirt hem or melding into stiletto heels. A fresher flourish came in the form of a capuche, or hood, worn to signal glamour rather than protection.This idea originated in a photo from the ’60s of model-actress Suzy Parker by Richard Avedon. Reed, having relocated to Paris, says he now has a better sense of the Parisian attitude. Maybe this explains the toned-down exuberance (the runway strut, however, remained). What’s missing is the spontaneity, the insouciance, theje ne sais quoi.
1 March 2024
Backstage, Harris Reed reported that Nina Ricci has gone from “one store to 125” since his arrival. Something about his exuberant, more-is-more approach is working for the French brand, which has seen a steady stream of designers cycle in and out over the past 20 or so years.Nina Ricci is a name the world knows because of its blockbuster fragrance, L’Air du Temps. There’s not much brand history to dig into on the fashion side beyond the romance of that best-selling perfume, so designers make up new rules as they come along. An American designer based in London, Reed has brought his queer eye and gender-fluid approach to the label.Like his debut last season, the new collection skewed toward evening. He opened with a short silk duchesse babydoll dress in icy blue, accessorized with above-the-elbow gloves, fishnet stockings, platform heels—the whole shebang. Reed loves a really big statement, be that a pink column gown with a sculptural neckline shaped like a life preserver or a pantsuit with a matching bra top in a metallic mint crinkle leather nearly as reflective as a mirror. And he never met a bow he didn’t like. They climbed up strapless dresses with sweetheart necklines, punctuated the backside of a tweed bouclé miniskirt suit, and arched out at least a foot on either side of the waist on a zebra-striped look that numbered among the collection’s showiest pieces.Parts of it edged into camp. Subtlety is not really part of Reed’s vocabulary—even on wardrobe essentials like a suit, he cuts his lapels extra-wide and his bell-bottoms super-swishy—but he reined in some of his more extra instincts here to positive effect. An ivory halter-neck dress with a triangular cutout at the solar plexus almost qualified as minimal. He credited the shift with the year he’s spent in Paris, “actually living here and walking down the streets and seeing a lot of my queer community, but also a lot of French women and how they wear clothes.”Another mark in the plus column: the fact that he’s bringing body diversity to the runway in a way that feels natural and instinctive and not like filling a quota. Not many other designers here in Paris can say that.
29 September 2023
From the start, Harris Reed has upended fashion’s established way of doing things: getting a look in Vogue, on Harry Styles no less, before his first fashion show, and on the day of that runway debut landing the kind of profile inThe New Yorkerthat designers twice his age are still holding out hope for.Last September, days after his third London fashion show, he was appointed the creative director of Nina Ricci, extending his disruptive streak. Reed is a Central Saint Martins grad, which used to be the kind of credential you needed to land a job in a design studio, and then work your way up. Online community building is the metric that increasingly matters today. With his social media fluency and his significant following, Reed skipped the years of on-the-job training and landed a front man position.In the lead-up to this Paris show, Styles wore a black Nina Ricci tuxedo by Reed accessorized by an enormous silk flower at the throat to the BRIT Awards, suggesting that his Nina Ricci would be as gender fluid as his own label, a new direction for the French brand. Before and after that, Adele wore a custom Reed creation for Ricci to perform in Las Vegas, and Florence Pugh chose another for the BAFTAs.That celebrity endorsements and red carpet placements will be important to the new Nina Ricci strategy was evident from the front row, where the stylists Law Roach (Zendaya) and Marni Senofonte (Beyoncé) mixed with Kiernan Shipka and Richie Shazam. More so, it was made clear by the looks that came down the runway, which were tilted to big evenings and photo calls, with polka dots galore, fluoro feathers, giant bows, and a surrealistic baby lamb print commissioned from the artist Jeanine Brito.Pugh’s orange tulle gown made an appearance, only split into two pieces with a slice of peekaboo midriff. First modeled by Styles at the BRITs, the tailoring looked like it took its cues from Bianca and Mick Jagger’s matching 1971 wedding suits—down to the extra-wide brimmed hats. Runway-spanning circle skirts leaned perilously close to costume. And then there was the show-closing hobble skirt—the model who wore it deserves a prize for not toppling over.A pouf-sleeved denim jacket and matching high-waisted jean flares provided some counter-balance, but the drama was the point. “Everyone has really turned out all the stops, it’s a bold new statement,” Reed said backstage. There’s no easing into these jobs, but the finesse expected of the Paris runways may come with more time.
Where Reed is way out ahead of some of his peers is with his cast. Precious Lee opened the show, and as she vamped for the cameras, it was a reminder of the too narrow and old-fashioned visions of beauty seen elsewhere this week.
3 March 2023
Crop tops are everywhere in Paris this week. No wonder, you might think, given thechaleur extrêmeof 36-degree heat currently engulfing the city. But the Parisienne is not a woman who habitually dares to bare. What changed? “It’s in the air, everybody is feeling free,” says Nana Baehr, design director at Nina Ricci, whose interim spring collection in the absence of a creative director (Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter exited in January) made use of cropped lengths and lots of leg, to boot.Baehr had been inspired to show some skin, she said in a preview, by the spirit of youthful rebellion that threads through the 1970 Antonioni movieZabriskie Point. “I watched it when I had Covid; it’s about a young couple who meet in the desert, during the war in Vietnam, so it’s all about rebellion and protest, and I found so many parallels with what we are living today,” she ventured. “I saw this kind of modern minimalist hippy.” The collection accordingly had a light, airy vibe, its accompanying imagery captured against the backdrop of Salin d’Aigues-Morte, the otherworldly salt marshes and pink lakes that played host to Jacquemus earlier this summer. Deadstock organza was twisted into petal-shaped tops and paired with micro-shorts, while parachute silks dyed in smudgy florals comprised wafting dresses and shirts with ballooning sleeves. A lightweight-wool suit in candy pink was cut to show off a house signature, the caped back, while a strapless embellished jumpsuit offered a relaxed take on evening wear.Inevitably, the brand faces a tough test to get back in the swing of things in a merciless fashion cycle that demands artistic vision, viable product, and serious buzz—all at the same time. Well-known for its fragrances, it has cycled through designers in recent years. A new creative director will be announced in the next few months, and the incumbent will be charged with launching an accessories business. Baehr mentioned that shoes and handbags will be a focus, and possibly setting up collaborations (Robert Ricci, Nina’s son, once worked with artists including Sol LeWitt and Andy Warhol), as well as doubling down on digital. Whoever gets the gig, their aim should arguably be on restoring sophisticated softness to the house. As Baehr puts it: “I think there is a lot of space for modern femininity, and we have to grab that, because it belongs to us, it’s been part of the brand since the very beginning.”
14 July 2022
For many a heritage fashion house, there comes a point when the clothes have to reclaim credibility from a celebrated perfume to reconquer hearts and—even more importantly—eyeballs.Which is where Nina Ricci finds itself today (it’s in good company, but that’s another story). That’s a heavy mantle to put on its third design team in five years or so, especially when the collection in question is just a placeholder (more on that in a minute).Having long worked in-house—and before that at Yves Saint Laurent for nearly two decades—design director Nana Baehr knows a thing or two about pulling together a collection under pressure.The team started, logically enough, by drawing on the house’s storied archetypes and savoir-faire. In lieu of the pretty, well-mannered florals that marked the brand’s heyday came “sprayed” florals-as-camouflage print on one slip dress, for example. It felt like an interesting idea in need of more time. Elsewhere, the house’s tailoring tradition was applied to techy, very on-point materials, like chocolate quilted nylon. A glossy apple-red cloche of a cape (another Ricci touchpoint) contrasted with more traditional houndstooth or chevron wools and soft, thick textured knits. On a lighter note came playful little mohair argyle sweaters in eye-popping colors with matching panties. A little black dress had tulle overweave on the bodice that, despite visual interest, fanned out so high that sipping Champagne would be all but impossible. Having fun is tricky when things keep getting in your way.The collection notes gave an indication of where this is going: next season a “collaborative chapter” called Ricci Faces will draw on “eclectic talents from the creative industries.” Sounds cool enough. But it does raise the question of what’s in a name.
4 March 2022
If those living in breezier parts of the world ever needed motivation to get their 10,000 steps in a day, Nina Ricci had the answer for pre-fall: a collection designed to be worn in the wind. For Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter, whose work is often submerged in aquatic themes, investigating the properties and possibilities of air was something of a departure. Actually, make that an ascent: tailoring andflouimbued with details meant to catch and contain the wind. “It’s that awkward moment when you’re off-balance,” Botter said on a video call from the Netherlands, explaining the sense of movement he and Herrebrugh had set out to capture within their clothes.Rather than literally trying to freeze-frame the gestures of windswept fabric in garments, the Nina Ricci duo’s collection was a two-in-one transformation: clothes that looked one way until activated by wind and transformed into a different silhouette. “It’s not for sitting still. It’s for the modern woman who’s moving,” Herrebrugh said. The designers had investigated the performancewear and equipment native to extreme wind sports like kitesurfing and bungee jumping and merged these mechanisms and materials with the dress codes of urban daywear. They wanted to know: “How do they use air pockets to capture the air and slow you down? How do we use air to float and somehow slow down gravity?”Their implementations were both techy and technical. The back of a wool blazer had been replaced with a ballooning panel that resembled a parachute. A trouser was slit from the top of the thigh down through the hem, allowing its open legs to billow in the wind and create volume in movement. Incisions were made to the trouser of a suit creating a gash-like effect when on the go, a technique repeated in the cape sleeves of its matching jacket, which Botter said was based on the framework of flying squirrels. You can’t fault the Nina Ricci designers for lacking a studious and wide-ranging approach to their work.The issue with clothes that are activated by movement is, of course, that they have to work statically too. It wasn’t a concern for Botter and Herrebrugh, who said they had built mechanisms into their garments to make them transformable. The many slits of a dress, for instance—meant to float in the air—had been filled in with zippers allowing the wearer to zip it into a more body-conscious silhouette when indoors.
An ode to Nina Ricci’s L’Air du Temps fragrance, the collection was a reflection of our times, said Herrebrugh: “Air is very changeable. We’re all questioning the air of our times: the right now, each of our personalities. Air is so linked to each and every one of us and so linked to life.”
25 January 2022
Three years into their Nina Ricci residency, Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter are amping up their message. “We feel like it makes sense only when we can truly be ourselves, in design and what we stand for. We feel like we have the freedom to do that,” Herrebrugh said during a preview in Paris. Botter concurred: “This is the most personal collection we’ve done here.” Their new line of attack materialized in exceedingly bold propositions derived from the designer couple’s love of diving culture and their devotion to the sea: tailoring with cut-outs and wavy lines informed by vintage dive suits layered over fishnet knitwear and millefeuille of fluo viscose dresses and tops, with diving belts, swim caps, wetsuit shoes and flipper handbags.It’s a niche aesthetic that will divide the waters, but one that the designers and the house’s parent company, Puig, are invested in. “The group is saying, ‘Go for it.’ They really love what we do at Botter, so it feels natural to do it here,” Botter said, referring to the couple’s own brand, which carries his surname and which landed them the Nina Ricci job in the first place. The approach is intentionally radical: graphic concoctions made for a kind of statement dressing that isn’t for the timid, and a look that is truly particular to Herrebrugh and Botter at a time when so many brands churn out similar pieces. That, of course, also makes it particular to a very specific customer.If wearing Nina Ricci historically called for a romantic constitution, this is certainly a more intense flirtation. So was the message the designers wanted to convey with a collection film that saw models walking through screens projecting imagery of oceanic decline and melting icecaps. “We’re a little bit done with speaking about collection themes and that kind of stuff. At Nina Ricci, we should reflect the time we’re in. We are so obsessed with the preservation of the oceans,” Herrebrugh said. “People are talking about getting out of this pandemic, but then making something comforting to dream themselves away. But we think it’s time for people to open their fucking eyes and see what’s going on,” Botter added.With statements like that comes responsibility. The duo, who run a coral nursery in Curaçao, said Nina Ricci’s road to sustainability is a work in progress. “We are pushing and fighting and going in the right direction. It’s easy to show a façade, but it’s more important to change from the inside out. And that takes time,” Botter said.
“We could do this marketing thing, but we’re very honest designers and we don’t wanna play that game.” The couple’s fighting spirit was no doubt fueled by a new addition to their lives: their four-week-old daughter, Scully, named after a very special agent. “The idea that she has to live in this world for so much longer than us, it’s kind of scary. It makes you worry about a lot of things,” Herrebrugh said. Botter nodded: “Less bullshitting around, let’s say.”
1 October 2021
As keen divers, the lockdown period has been testing for Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter. It’s been two years since their last plunge into the deep blue off the Caribbean island of Curaçao where Botter grew up, and where the couple have established the Botter Coral Nursery, funded through their eponymous menswear label. During an appointment in their Rue François 1er showroom, the designers said their Nina Ricci resort collection had probably sprung from their longing for the turquoise sea.“We wanted to link more to our world where we feel free, and look less at the archive. We wanted to listen to our intuition,” Herrebrugh explained as a model walked by in a wetsuit transformed into a bouclé skirt suit, a wavy zip evoking the way aquatic-wear wraps around the body. Exercised throughout the collection, the diving motif drew direct lines to the way the designers express themselves in their menswear. It inevitably made for a more personal experience. “We love the underwater world,” Botter said, and that aesthetic is entirely individual to this duo.The properties of dive suits—both historical and contemporary—made for technically interesting and quite flattering lines, like those of a jacket with an intricate panel structure that concealed its closure, or little wetsuit-inspired turtleneck knits with fronts cut like razorbacks executed super lightweight. Tailoring played with the codes of beachwear in wraparound skorts and board short suits, which Botter said was a proposal for “a new suit” in this post-pandemic era of ease. And while it would have been tempting to throw in a scuba number or two, the designers didn’t want to be obvious.Between tuba snorkeling heels, abstract coral prints inspired by the florals of kitschy tourist board shorts, and the dégradé sunrise/sundown color formations printed on both garments and bags, you’d be inclined to call this a holiday collection. For Herrebrugh and Botter, however, tropical beach and sea life feels more like home than some exotic, post-pandemic “revenge travel” postcard. That’s why this collection embodied the intuition they were talking about. Authentic to their own world, it’s a direction they believe in for Nina Ricci. “It’s a story we’ll keep on telling,” Herrebrugh vowed.
25 June 2021
There’s a new approach at Nina Ricci: “We want to give a sharp and curated vision, not just in the end result but in the development as well,” Lisi Herrebrugh said on a video call from Paris. “From the beginning, we now work from a limited amount of sketches. It puts a certain pressure on the garments, but in the end, they get a lot of attention too.” Her words could have captioned the post-lockdown “wardrobe reset” many are now talking about in the fashion landscape. “It’s about not having endless amounts of choices, but instead being really focused,” said Rushemy Botter, driving home the idea.Newly rehabbed from the overload and overconsumption of our former lives, it’s likely our fashion mentalities will respond better to a lack of options coming back into the real world. In that sense, you could tell Herrebrugh and Botter had considered this collection in a meaningful way. Tasked with preserving Nina Ricci’s haute couture legacy for the present and future, they understand that a certain adaptability is necessary to create a relevant product. They want to “ground couture memories in everyday ways,” as Herrebrugh said. Their collection conveyed—through construction and illusion—couture shapes in garments devoid of the trussed-up constriction those structures would traditionally entail.Infused with the swimwear influences the designers—Caribbean via the Netherlands—have brought to Nina Ricci, the silhouettes manifested in a “dressed” look disguising a fit and tactility native to sports- or casualwear. “An outspoken shape that keeps its functionality,” Herrebrugh said, demonstrating the easiness of a lime green suit jacket that casually zipped into a couture volume. In another take on the same effect, an easy sheathlike dress was emblazoned with a print of a jacket collaged from archive pictures, creating a kind of trompe l’oeil.Similar methodologies were exercised in various ways and shapes in every garment, each carefully studied and selected for an essential wardrobe. Applied to a black workwear jacket that slightly trapezed at the back, it generated a casual and very wearable feeling that was interesting to encounter at Nina Ricci. If you stripped away the furry shoes and bucket hats that fancified their expression, it was a pretty realistic proposal for a post-confinement look. “It’s not like you have to wear a full Nina outfit. You can wear this with Levi’s jeans,” said Herrebrugh. That wasn’t a bad idea for a future proposal.
5 March 2021
Praise this digital moment in fashion all you want, but there really is a reason we’ve been running around Paris all these years looking at clothes in person. On a video call from their rue François 1er studio, Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter did their best to illustrate through a screen the clever techniques that defined their Nina Ricci pre-collection. You’d never realize from looking at the pictures, but each look was “a total look,” as Herrebrugh said, with single garments collaged from several deconstructed ones. A look that read like a skirt and a jacket, for example, was actually one single coat.A trench coat with a built-in contrast-color underpinning looked like three separate pieces. (If the idea of only wearing a coat out triggered flasher associations, Botter said he’d recommend styling it with a skintight roll-neck underneath.) But that wasn’t all. Inspired by the illusions of those contraptions, the designers conjured trompe l’oeil effects within their materials. In one case, a panel on a Prince of Wales check coat was overlaid in georgette, creating a sense offiltragethat tricked the optics. In another case, they had printed the pattern and wool effect of check onto a richer, more fluid fabric to dupe the eye.Herrebrugh and Botter attributed their ideas to Nina Ricci’s postwar brand identity. “Not that you can compare this to a postwar period, but we do have to deal with less fabrics,” Botter said, referring to the broken supply chain that has defined the past year in fashion. This collection, of course, was hardly make-do and mend, as Herrebrugh pointed out, “but more of a design idea: a choice.” Conceptually, it summed up many of the themes that have defined our lives recently, from the practical and comfortable approaches to dressing inspired by lockdown, to the reality versus artifice narrative we’re constantly confronted with in the digital age. In real life, the illusions of the garments would have been revealed. Through a screen, they were entirely deceptive.
22 January 2021
In the storied salons of the Nina Ricci headquarters on rue Francois 1er, its millennial designer duo had a generational confession to make: They use their phones for all kinds of creative tasks, including sketching. “They’re not beautiful sketches. Just quick things,” Lisi Herrebrugh noted, while her partner Rushemy Botter added that he does observe “old school” procedures, too. In contrast, perhaps, to some members of the Paris establishment, these young designers’ natural relationships with their phones were what made this season’s digital show format so instinctive to them.They presented their Nina Ricci collection through the (imagined) recorded screen of an iPhone, scrolling the viewer through their research process, from Google searches to YouTube clips and exchanges on iMessage. What it didn’t reveal was the actual inspiration behind the collection: L’Air du Temps, the institutional fragrance Nina Ricci launched after the Second World War. Light and elegant, it cut a decided contrast to the dense perfumes of the old world. “It was a message of hope, optimism, and revival. That’s what we wanted to bring with this collection,” Herrebrugh said.Its flacon, designed by the Art Nouveau glass artist René Lalique, informed the cuts, colors, and movements of dresses. They had the inimitable touch of this designer duo: a splicing between the couture heritage of Nina Ricci and the swimwear techniques that are their personal obsession. The nature of that marriage—not unlike L’Air du Temps itself—is confrontational, but Herrebrugh and Botter are sticking to their guns and continuing to refine their take on Nina Ricci.If the designers had felt the winds of change during their break in quarantine—spent with Botter’s parents in a Dutch village—it was expressed in a comfort-centric approach to their otherwise highly architectural tailoring. They removed its frames of confinement from the body and built its structure so it felt as if it was floating around the physique. Then, they imbued it with various adaptable features. A sleeveless blazer was hacked in half at the front so its top part could be worn hanging off the back, attached to a built-in swimsuit-like body.“I feel like there’s a balance in this collection between our tailoring background and the codes of the house. We’re finding our own fluidity,” Herrebrugh said, referring to the menswear label they run on the side, which carries Botter’s name and earned them the Nina Ricci gig in the first place.
Ironically, the most unassuming garment made the biggest impact: a tech-y pleated translucent blue blouse, which had the digital lightness expressed in the meeting between iPhones and the L’Air du Temps flacon. It was quite hypnotizing. Much like both of those inventions, the simplest designs are often the most enduring.L’Air du Temps, by the way, is the perfume Hannibal Lecter picks up on Clarice Starling’s skin inThe Silence of the Lambs. “You use Evian skin cream, and sometimes you wear L’Air du Temps, but not today,” he tells her, his eyes all sparkly and blue. Perhaps one day, we will sum up the events of 2020 in the eternal words of Agent Starling, her postalveolar fricative consonants key for pronunciation: “Scared at first; then…exhilarated.”
2 October 2020
Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter looked at the work of the artist Kees van Dongen this season. Van Dongen was a Dutch painter who moved to Paris at the turn of the last century and found success. That makes for a useful metaphor. Herrebrugh and Botter are themselves outsiders in Paris with a burgeoning men’s collection of their own and a prominent appointment at Nina Ricci. This is a city of fashion Picassos and Matisses, but step by step, this young duo is making progress.Pre-show, Botter described the collection as neoromantic. “We went back to the old heritage of Nina Ricci,” he said. With no prior experience in womenswear, working from an established template—modeling after the Old Masters, to extend the painting metaphor—seems like the right instinct. They started by lightening up their palette, cribbing from both the “soft and blended” colors of Van Dongen’s early work and the bold, more brazen colors of his Paris years. The lilac of a brushed wool coat was pretty, and they also played with a vibrant floral print on a black ground and patchworks of crinkly white lace.Herrebrugh and Botter still feel most at ease with tailoring. Their silhouette this season remained rather masculine, despite the way they cropped their double-breasted jackets at the midriff to expose the breezy button-down shirts underneath. The shoulder coverings—kraplapin Dutch—only managed to weigh down their efforts, but the lacing at the back of a pair of shapely peacoats was a welcome softening touch. Soft femininity is what this brand has historically stood for. The pieces that captured that best while exhibiting the fresh sense of modernity that is so crucial to Herrebrugh and Botter were a pair of billowing draped dresses in technical silk. Canvases on which to sketch out their next collection.
28 February 2020
Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh have now completed a full collection cycle at Nina Ricci. In the course of these four seasons, they have transposed the fresh tailoring skills from their own menswear brand to feminine shapes that draw from the house archives. They have introduced a stylized cloche hat in classic and expressionist colors that is arguably their strongest signature. And they have established that Nina Ricci’s emblematically romantic spirit is not really their jam.Or, at least, that’s not where their heads are at right now in what remains an experimental phase. Calling their runway shows their “creative laboratory” and the pre-collections their “wearable laboratory,” they repeatedly referred to the process of “pure-ing out” both the preexisting codes and their personal instincts. “We have crazy ideas, so pure-ing them out becomes a nice challenge,” Botter said.They doubled down on cocoon coat silhouettes and angular suit constructions that they believe should be easy and pleasurable to wear. Several jackets featured lower edges that folded in on themselves without adding unnecessary volume. Several plush knits boasted rounded backs. The redesign of what they call the “Nina collar” (essentially an exaggerated split funnel neck) on an LBD was flattering and unfussy. And you can see how they repeat these ideas over and over again in order that ideally, everything starts to become a Nina something-or-other.They proved they could do this with the polo shirt, now the Botter signature, and its appearance as a crisp blouse and fine-gauge viscose knits is where you see the overlap of their worlds. What you’re likely waiting to see is how the designers can close the gap between their spirited, quirky sensibility and their stricter, architectural leanings—and how much more time they need to get there.
21 January 2020
Packages of “Ninalicious” bubble gum were placed on every seat at Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh’s Nina Ricci show. The duo is taking this label in an unexpected direction. On their Spring runway, humor and a quirky kind of youthfulness replaced the familiar codes of femininity and romance. Consider the brightly colored buckets that functioned as bags and hats. The designers said they were inspired by a summertime trip to the beach with their nephews and that they were after a sense of nostalgia. Also, the modified cloches from their Fall debut were a hit.Botter and Herrebrugh launched a menswear collection not long before they were named to this Nina Ricci post. They’re untested and in the spotlight, so it makes sense to build on what’s working for them. But the learning curve is steep. The standaway collars and hyperbolic pouf shoulders of the opening organza looks, a riff on Dominican Republic maid uniforms, were too extreme, and the logo detail across the chest rather out of place on the delicate material. Round, bib-like collars on button-down blouses—these a nod to their Belgian roots—were almost as exaggerated and might be slightly easier to wear. Pieces like a pair of pastel dresses in airy cloque had a naive, unstudied charm. But there was a significant disconnect between them and the soberer pintuck tailoring that formed the foundation of the collection.Botter and Herrebrugh are the most earnest of beginners. Their experiments are to be applauded, even those that weren’t successful. Something they definitely got right was their instinct for effervescence, especially in the current moment when we’re confronted with so much difficulty. Joy is a quality to build on.
27 September 2019
It was a little over a year ago that Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh won the top fashion award at the Festival d’Hyères, which helped set in motion their appointment at Nina Ricci last August. Although they have had some time to settle in (and produce two collections), today’s visit to the Avenue Montaigne showroom revealed the extent to which they are putting their personal stamp on the maison. For the temporary set-up of their Resort collection, they’ve stationed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a Buzz Lightyear figurine from their office among the art books, while wild floral arrangements (from florist du jour, Debeaulieu) echo colorful vintage furniture. These playful touches feel disruptive in a warm, welcome way. Likewise, as they continue their sharp break from the previous design direction, you get the sense they’re doing so respectfully.Before browsing the clothes, they explain how their distinct perspective of womenswear (previously, the duo had only designed men’s) is “getting to shine more and more each season.” They’ve adjusted their tailoring, preserving the architectural, 360-degree angles while introducing more swing and lightness. In general, the rounder, the better—where a two-tone style (black from the back; off-white from the front) could have been less triangular, the curvy couture shape of another was unequivocally chic. And if you’re wondering, the shapely raffia hats are their way of completing these statements.In parallel was the knitwear development, which showed not only their acute eye for color—call it an alternative rainbow—but also the ease they envision for Nina Ricci. They created a high-neck dickie embroidered with “Nina” expressly for wearing under the jackets as a total look, while other knits were pleated or draped as flattering standalone pieces. Herrebrugh singled out a poplin corset over a striped sheath as their notion of day-to-night dressing; from a technical perspective, it suggested that they are still reconciling tailoring and flou.In the meantime, they deserve credit for rethinking the Nina Ricci lady in today’s terms. “Ladylike,” after all, is so steeped in preconceptions—visual or otherwise. And in reimagining a brand whose best-selling perfume is called L’Air du Temps (“of the moment”), they seem certain that things need not be so fussy. “Gestures with a minimalist approach,” was how Botter summarized their efforts so far. Let’s see where they take us next.
24 June 2019
Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh were a surprise appointment at Nina Ricci. The couple, in work and in life, have a young menswear label, Botter, whose oversize tailoring and energetic humor caught the attention of the fashion world last year. They were LVMH Prize finalists and picked up the top design award at the Festival d’Hyères. They’ve never designed womenswear. Nina Ricci is a historic house with the most feminine of aesthetics. As a couturier, Ricci didn’t have the distinctive design signature of contemporaries like Cristóbal Balenciaga, Coco Chanel, or Madame Grès, but her perfume, L’Air du Temps, is one of the most famous going.“They gave us a blank page,” said Herrebrugh at a preview. Not unpredictably, their debut leaned heavily toward tailoring. With an eye to couture shapes, they planted a big bow at one shoulder of a double-breasted boxy jacket and swaddled others with demonstrative wraps. The designers proved they have a contrarian streak: The maillot shapes that they superimposed on the bodies of coats and blazers were, they said, a riff on the traditional corsets found in Nina Ricci tailleurs of old. The results weren’t quite as elegant as they probably hoped, but one exercise that worked well was the patternmaking they did using a parasol. Opened and laid flat, it provided the template for the twisting shape of the show-opening blouse, which was as light and airy as what is expected at Nina Ricci. The hats, sort of like oversize cloches perched high on the head, were modeled on the cap at the tip of the parasol.The designers came at the trademark Ricci lightness a couple of other ways. One was to use lawn-chair mesh for several pieces, including a dress and skirt layered over trousers—the oversize grommets and thick cording were the giveaways. Their other idea was to reproduce Bubble Wrap in organza; small and large squares of the bubbles decorated two-dimensional dresses. “It was quite a lot of research,” Herrebrugh said. It makes sense, never having designed womenswear, that the duo would approach this project conceptually. To conjure the signature Ricci romance, they’ll have to learn to lean more on instinct.
1 March 2019
The announcement that Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh landed the Nina Ricci job left vacant by Guillaume Henry’s departure caught many industry watchers by surprise. The Botter designers won the Festival d’Hyères Grand Prize in April of this year on the strength of an irreverent runway show that blended creative men’s tailoring with a provocative anti-sea-pollution message. They seemed about as antithetical a choice for Nina Ricci’s brand of femininity as could be. Maybe they were hired to rewrite the house rules? Unreconstructed, old-school frills are starting to feel fairly anachronistic, after all. Maybe there’s a corporate interest in adding men’s, à la Celine?Botter and Herrebrugh will make their Nina Ricci debut in early 2019; we won’t know until then which way they decide to take the brand—traditional or unexpected. But there’s no such thing as a season off, so the company’s Spring collection was produced by an in-house team put in place around the time of the duo’s hire. It’s a commercially minded showroom offering—a “palate cleanser,” a studio rep called it—not runway-worthy, but not without viable pieces, like a navy technical nylon trench, an easy shirting-stripe silk midi dress that pulls over the head with little fuss, and mannish pantsuits in solid or striped twill. If we’re reading the clues right, Botter and Herrebrugh will be thinking mighty differently about the house heritage.
29 September 2018
It’s his last collection for the label. It’s not his last collection for the label. Yesterday,WWDannounced that Guillaume Henry was leaving Nina Ricci, frustrated by what he perceives as a lack of investment on the part of parent company Puig. Not long after, the Nina Ricci press office issued a rejoinder, refuting the news. This was not an auspicious set of events for today’s show, and the collection itself didn’t offer much in the way of further clarification. Nina Ricci is a house whose codes are femininity, romance, and lacy bits, and Henry is a designer who seems most interested in tailoring.A pair of duffle coats in red and ice-blue looked dashing, and the season’s omnipresent cape silhouette made two appearances: one in black in what could’ve been wool and cashmere, and the other in bronze latex, of all things. He used low-key gray corduroy for both a trench and a jean jacket lined with white fluff, and there was a skirtsuit, the puffed-shoulder primness of which he undercut with a sheer top traced with two intersecting lines of rhinestones.A contrarian streak ran through the boudoir-ish elements, which seemed well considered for “the times we’re living in.” Henry’s cone-bra slips were odd-fitting, intentionally so, and he crushed the silk pieces to create perma-wrinkles. Crinkly fabric notwithstanding, with its high, handkerchief neckline and thin red belt, model Kinga Rajzak’s white gown was subtle and elegant in a vaguely 1930s-ish way. If he’s back again next season, as the PR says he will be, that long dress would be a good jumping-off point.
2 March 2018
Nina Ricci’s Pre-Fall collection was photographed by Estelle Hanania at the AccorHotels Arena, the Parisian equivalent to Madison Square Garden. She shot on film using the gelatin-silver process, so there was no digital, real-time screen for Guillaume Henry to see her vision until she turned over the final pictures. It wasn’t so long ago that photojournalists and roadies alike would capture music idols this way, and these are the images that usually saturate social media when a legend dies—the passing of French chanteuse France Gall a few days ago yet another reminder. Henry noted his fascination with this phenomenon; yet unlike the usual tribute collection, he said Hanania’s photos within the empty arena captured the onstage-backstage duality of glamour and reality that these clothes express—whether the women who will wear them are famous performers or not.Rarely does rock come so refined. Consider the cable-knit bib held together by a handful of strass straps; Rihanna might sport it with little else than a pair of oversize pants; you, on the other hand, could layer it over a blouse as styled in the lookbook. In the showroom, mannequins dressed in variations of violet and red—a high-sheen corduroy smoking with a lace chemise, for example—made the type of loud color statement typically destined for a photo op; yet the collection actually yielded a fair amount of powdery and putty hues, along with inky green and black, to seduce more subtly. The robe coat that Henry revisits in every collection was shown this time over a long slip dress with high vents revealing a lace underlayer. It bordered on femme fatale even while projecting just enough tastefulness to befit a museum fundraiser. For every extra-sheer ruched and pleated chiffon blouse or shirtdress, there were flattering full-coverage pants and tailoring in patchwork tweeds that veered more retro in volume. And whereas he imagined the quilted caban with contrast stitching as a cozy layer for a star pre- or postshow, you would probably buy it as a chic upgrade from Uniqlo.Interestingly, despite all the individualdéshabillépieces, they were shown discreetly or as finishing touches. And you wouldn’t guess from the glossy red cowboy heels, vinyl detailing, pink faux Mongolian fur, and strass embellishments that Henry wanted the collection to exude a sense of tenderness.
But it was there in the floaty, feminine shapes and also in the season’s print motif: a pattern of lipstick kisses pursed by the women in his studio.
10 January 2018
A tent was erected in the shadow of the gold-leafed dome of Les Invalides for Guillaume Henry’s Nina Ricci show. It was pleasant to be outside on the first sunny day of Paris Fashion Week. Henry took the French Foreign Legion as a starting point this season, hence the location: Les Invalides in now a museum, but it was built by Louis XIV as an army hospital. Ricci and the Foreign Legion are an unusual pair; a Google search indicates that only one woman has ever served. This is the French house of feminine, pretty things, which makes Henry’s other talking points—Imperial India and Don Quixote—rather strange as well.The show opened with a brass-buttoned jacket with big bellows pockets and hyperbolic squared-off shoulders, a logo belt, and white lace biker shorts. On paper it sounds implausible, but biker shorts have been trending in Paris. The tailoring borrowed elements of military finery, like epaulets heavy with silk fringe. If a coat or cape didn’t feature those epaulets, its shoulders followed the exaggerated lines of look one. The yellow version was even stenciled in black withNina Riccion the back. Pleated trousers and shorts grazed the upper ribs. These were puzzling choices, made more so by the models’ costume-like feather crowns and legionnaire’s caps.Henry had more success with softer pieces, like a billowy crushed nylon coat with two columns of snap buttons and a white midi dress with a scarf wrapped a little like a sari around the neck. These hewed closer to what Nina Ricci has always stood for, while also looking like something that contemporary women might like to wear. As for much of the rest, it didn’t qualify.
29 September 2017
Amidst a heatwave that puts the brain on a constant quest to cool down, a fluffy marabou coat stationed near the entry of the Nina Ricci showroom resembled an orange creamsicle in the best possible way. Tonal looks in glacial blue and mint green were as welcome as a glass of cold water. An illustration by artist Tanya Ling of a wistful girl in one of the season’s looks seemed as if she, too, was melting. But gradually, as Guillaume Henry began explaining how this collection’s source material drew largely from commedia dell’arte—a Nina Ricci rewrite of Pierrot, Columbine, and Harlequin—the body’s thermostat returned to normal. He noted how the costumes of these silent stock characters were often exaggerated and expressive in the absence of dialogue, yet also light enough to facilitate maximum movement.With this specific reference comes heightened-risk clothes that wind up more clownish than chic. But mostly, Henry mostly rose to the challenge by proposing romantic volumes that were distinctly his. He brought white poplin to the fore with dramatic blouses that required little more in the way of styling than well-proportioned black pants or a dance skirt. Otherwise, a powdery beige was often used as the foil for black, so that the effect read more faithful to Henry’s command of the maison’s codes. “It’s in my blood to be bourgeois; it’s just a matter of being fun about it,” he mused. Cue the pompoms on chic pointy flats, brassy orb heels, and Tambour, a bag shaped like a miniature drum.The dramatic shapes in the photos are deceiving; he achieved those elephant-ear shoulders and rounded hips with supple dimension, not rigidity. Not easy to do; much easier to wear. Meanwhile, various trenches, a cape, and a redingote offered no shortage of soigné outerwear independent of the theme, which was necessary in the event that regular clients aren’t sold on his bold Harlequin pattern. Henry, incidentally, made a point to mention that he would like Nina Ricci to seem within reach of more women, and pieces in this collection priced 20 percent lower than the usual entry level are intended to reflect this. A sweatshirt dress with a removable ruff seemed forced compared to the flattering flared jeans; but thinking less exclusively is definitely refreshing.
20 June 2017
Guillaume Henry ventured far afield for his Fall inspiration at Nina Ricci—all the way to rodeo country—America, especially the left coast. If the proliferation of Paris vegan places and juice bars is any indication, that part of America holds a special allure for the French, but this was uncharted territory for the house of Ricci, even for Henry who has surprised us with his starting points before. Last season, for example, he used striped soccer jerseys as a leitmotif. Here, it was the shapes and detailing of westernwear, much of it rendered in pastels—the snap closures, metal collar clips, and yoke seaming of shirts; sequins and silk fringe; a skirt and coat with hip cutouts modeled on chaps; and high-waisted, curve-hugging corduroy. Pushing the theme further, there was a cowboy and bucking bronco print.Henry’s playful instinct is commendable—it’s what made his Carven tenure a success—but this adventure didn’t pay off quite as he intended. With more refining, the results might’ve been subtler, however these clothes were up against some heavy-handed accessorizing—lace gloves and stockings, saddle bags suspended from belts, supersize belt buckles, and bolo ties. Here and there, a more classic sense of French chic materialized. Henry cuts a good-looking coat. And if there’s one thing all these pastels taught us, it’s that you can’t go wrong with navy and black.
4 March 2017
If a cowgirl theme isn’t detectable upon first glance at the latest Nina Ricci collection, Guillaume Henry may well take that as a compliment. Design, after all, is the process of refining a reference; and at this maison in particular, refinement remains a constant—no hoedowns here. But having spent the past two years proposing an updated femme fatale, Henry now seems intent to explore a less specific archetype and with this shift comes a broader lineup. Hence the unexpected palette of sunset hues spanning a soft-shouldered suit in powdery rose to a corduroy blazer and skirt in deep turquoise. Ordinarily, such vivid color combined with the stretchy cling of certain tops, plus a recurring cutaway outlining the hips might evoke ’80s aerobics outfits as immortalized by Olivia Newton-John and Jane Fonda. Yet Henry kept things classy, such that any suggestion of sport was offset by sleek tailoring or else a sampling of customary lace. He transitioned from lingerie that defined some of his initial seasons to an interest in men’s underwear, pointing out the long johns origin in a cocktails-ready jumpsuit. Conversely, an unlined wool chalk-stripe fit so snug to the body that it became second skin.For all these original innerwear interpretations, the outerwear showed off Henry’s knack for soigné nonchalance. Among the standouts: a cocoon coat in croc-stamped PVC with coin-sized perforations, the dressy down topper with an A-line back, a plush bomber, a papery leather trench, and a rabbit number with puffed shoulders. Those shoulders, incidentally, were a giveaway Western flourish (the five-pocket detailing was another), which he likened to a stylized Calamity Jane. Except in lieu of her dusty brown, he used a more urbane neutral that he dubbed “bourgeois beige.”
6 January 2017
HasNina Riccigone sporty? That's putting it a bit simply, but Guillaume Henry did have something new in mind for Spring. It had to do with the more casual attitude of clothes that have their origins on the playing field, and in street- and workwear. The starting point for the collection was a soccer jersey, the kind with subtle intarsia stripes. He reworked those stripes countless ways, on day and evening pieces, and in tone-on-tone and high-contrast variations. That jersey morphed into skin-baring lace tanks, slinky sequined tops, and stretchy knit dresses with cut-outs here-and-there, among other things. If there were too many stripes by the end, and not enough variation, they nonetheless counted among the shows's best pieces, especially those clingy knit dresses and a black-and-white striped blouson dress in silk taffeta modeled with a windbreaker.Of course, it wasn't all elevated riffs on soccer jerseys. There was still plenty Avenue Montaigne in the mix, be that in the form of a checked trench with raised seams, or a leather one in a dark shade of plum. The color palette was fruity: shades of cassis, raspberry, and prune mingled with that plum. In their midst, a bright red drawstring-waist silk tank dress stood out. Henry’s tailoring conjured vague ’80s memories. What signaled the era weren’t shoulder pads, but the high waistlines of cargo pants and the slick fabrics. Nina Ricci is a label known for its boudoir-y sensibility; Henry mostly took a pass on overt sex appeal, but clients looking for a fun night out should consider a velvet pantsuit in those shaved stripes.
1 October 2016
From theNina Riccishowroom on Avenue Montaigne, Guillaume Henry confessed that a season of overcast skies was largely responsible for conceiving a collection so motivated by heat, movement, and 1970s African swagger. By fusing the maison’s romantic Parisian heroine with photographer Malick Sidibé’s dapper portraiture and the pulsing sounds of Fela Kuti, he tapped a specific branch of retro flair to arrive at original looks that seduced from all angles.Often, this meant positioning the designs between luxe and louche, as with a coat in papery eel covered in a wax print of suns, or a chic, unstructured trench birthed from a windbreaker. To balance the sling-back kitten heels and broderie anglaise, he juxtaposed velvet triangle bras and tube dresses that shimmered like city lights reflecting on a wet sidewalk. If houndstooth stirrup pants aren’t an easy sell, his elongating trousers will be. Organza turtlenecks were an unexpected achievement.Insistent that nothing constrict the body, Henry added stretch to a georgette sheath, simultaneously enhancing it with lightness and cling. He also added slits to velvet skirts, asymmetric vertical seams to the backs of blazers and high vents to tailored coats. Even the athletic chevron shifted around, dropping below the hips as an incrustation on a slip dress or appearing as an overlay on an evening gown. Such a daring color chord of violet, saffron, and electric blue signals Henry’s confidence halfway into his second year as creative director. The collection’s eclectic attitude—whether the sweet baby shells decorating necklines or the oversize fur coat in fox and mink—will resonate not only within this gilded corner of Paris, but beyond it.
17 June 2016
The third time was the charm forGuillaume HenryatNina Ricci. Leaving behind theCarveningenue for thefemme amoureuseof Nina Ricci proved complicated his first two runway seasons at the house, but tonight he found his footing, and solidified the groundwork for the brand as he envisions it. Ricci’s three main tenets under Henry are strong but slightly off color, lingerie details including plenty of lace, and an emphasis on skins. Where Henry’s vision departs from his predecessor’s is in its incorporation of menswear; there was a lot of tailoring in this collection, and it was slightly oversize, with sleeves inching toward, and in some cases past, the fingertips. Is the Ricci woman stealing away from a rendezvous with her lover’s peacoat? You got the sense that Henry likes that idea.Other things Henry likes: a sheer blouse in deep green lace or blue techno silk, tucked into mannish cropped pants or a midi skirt with a center slit all the way up to there. Those slits edged into immodest territory—they’ll need to be a few inches more demure at retail—but it was nice to see the delicate triangle bras underneath all those transparent tops. This way, they’re street-ready. Outerwear got a good deal of Henry’s attention, the best of the bunch being a shiny brown patent style and a black eel skin. Ricci’s raison d’être, of course, is dresses. Henry’s contribution to the ongoing slip dress conversation came in rivulets of silvery gray sequins. He also had plenty of the season’s de rigueur velvet, including a traffic-stopping red number with a peekaboo bodice to match the skirt’s dangerous slit.
5 March 2016
The strongest impression from visiting theNina Riccishowroom today came not from a single piece but from an action: Creative directorGuillaume Henryrepeatedly scrunched fabrics between his two hands to prove their lightness and malleability. First, a “memory” viscose that appeared permanently crinkled; then a particular variety of snakeskin formed into a fitted sheath; after that, papery leather (sure enough, the lacquered red coatdress could be clasped without effort). As for the delicate lace embellished with dimensional rosettes: a gentle caress sufficed.Henry explained that much of this collection emerged from the desire to give shape to a woman whose allure arouses curiosity: Is she an actress? An enigma? A Bond girl? He didn’t actually mention the last reference but one could visualize the through-line from early Deneuve to present-dayLéa Seydoux, from the structured caban in Japanese wool or angora dressing gown to the slinky dress of sequins trellised on tulle.So now that we’ve established Henry’s strong grasp of his materials—let’s not leave out the coat in sheared Mongolian fur patched with mink—and his softened sense of volume (the blouses that billowed at back thanks to a smocked detail were a nice addition), we arrive at the question of how this finely executed collection syncs with our collective memory of Nina Ricci and its potential going forward. Henry hasn’t yet closed that gap, but he’s getting closer.
8 January 2016
Guillaume Henryhas the goodwill of the fashion community. He gaveCarven, which was a defunct couture house when he arrived in 2009, a global profile and a distinctive look. Women responded to Carven’s gamine sensibility, and the brand grew quickly, opening a store in New York. Tonight’s show was Henry’s second forNina Ricci, but he hasn’t yet found his footing. It’s an issue more of tone than execution, though both play a part. His backstage mood board was pinned with pictures of Romy Schneider in the 1971 filmMax et les Ferrailleurs, and images of ’90s models likeKate Moss,Nadja Auermann, andKristen McMenamy. “I’d love men to fall in love with [the Nina Ricci woman],” he said.That’s not a bad goal, but this was provocation without seduction, a fact that came down to the stiffness of some of his materials, the sheerness of others, and a generally slack, away-from-the-body silhouette. The show’s patent ostrich skin had a glossy, almost lurid sheen, but it was about as unyielding as materials get. The black-and-white cowhide coat and apron-dress weren’t much more forgiving. This will no doubt make us sound both American and prudish: Considering Nina Ricci is a brand historically known for its lingerie, it would’ve been nice to see a bra underneath Henry’s sheer organza blousons. But his see-through wrap skirts were an even bigger miss. The best pieces here were the micro-plissé shifts which enhanced the models’ natural hourglass shapes. Henry should keep them in mind when he begins working on his next collection.
3 October 2015
Resort marks Guillaume Henry's second season at Nina Ricci. It's very much a continuation of his first collection for Fall, which saw him loosening up the house's waist-conscious silhouette and otherwise injecting a fair bit of masculinity into the formula without relinquishing its essentially feminine point of view. Here, the attitude was incrementally easier, thanks to the addition of built-in wrinkles on both a sky blue silk twill dress and a metallic-bronze sequined sheath. The nylon-silk blend of another dress with a ruched and gathered bodice had an almost sporty feel. Henry balled it up in his hands, pointing out its virtual weightlessness. It would be an asset in a week that has seen Paris temps break 100 degrees more than once. Lightness defined the collection. A tailored blazer in a textured cloqué and an unstructured linen trench were unlined, and a tweed jacket was spliced with organza at the sides, a boudoir-ish touch that didn't detract from its everyday wearability. The designer's trousers, at least as they were pictured in the lookbook, had a little too much slouch to survive the mean streets of Paris or anywhere else.As designer shifts go, this one isn't as radical as what's currently transpiring at Gucci, but what Henry is doing remains a departure for Ricci. Unchecked femininity was the brand's defining characteristic; reining that in as he has could serve to dull its unique aesthetic. Maybe that doesn't matter. He reports that the clothes' more relaxed sensibility has attracted new attention from Asian and European buyers.
5 July 2015
Guillaume Henry is the new guy at Nina Ricci. He had a good run at Carven, turning a brand virtually unknown outside of Paris fashion circles into a global operation, and very quickly creating signatures that made the label's clothes recognizable and desirable. Nina Ricci is a different proposition; Henry is just the latest designer to take on the creative director role here, and he does so against the backdrop of a Paris fashion week busy with debuts.As Henry's predecessor, Peter Copping, left things, Ricci was a house known for its femininity. Even when he was making sweaters, Copping gave them a hint of the boudoir. Henry didn't out and out reverse the formula, but he did tweak it significantly, cutting dresses in the straight lines of a T-shirt; restricting the color palette to neutral shades of white, camel, and navy, save for a single fiery red number; and adding pants and coats with the orderliness of military uniforms to the mix. It didn't feel exactly minimal, not with the abundance of lace on the runway. But there was something about the way Henry handled the fabric—crushing and ruching it on loose-fitting shifts—that suggested he was thinking along more casual, less precious lines. Part of what made Copping's Ricci special was the way he romanced a dress. The strength of this collection was the outerwear, boyish in its proportions and boasting painted porcelain buttons imprinted with the house's iconic dove. The collection as a whole didn't quite take off, but many of Henry's instincts looked right: the undone hair and makeup, the classic, low-heeled pumps. We'll be looking forward to seeing how he fleshes out his vision for the label in the coming months.
7 March 2015
Should Peter Copping go to New York to take a lead design role at Oscar de la Renta, as has been reported, his Nina Ricci show today was a lovely swan song. Copping, at the house five years now, has a firm grasp on Ricci's trademark romance and femininity, but he has a light touch. Witness the show opener: a vaguely '40s-ish buff-colored cotton jacket worn with a double-face crepe skirt that was pink on the outside and sunflower yellow on the inside, a fact made apparent by its multiple slits. The collection was animated by what Copping called the "make do and mend" spirit of post-World War II-era Paris, an organizing theme prompted by Madame Ricci and her son Robert's efforts to jump-start their business with scale models of couture dresses.Of course, there was nothing literally DIY about these clothes. Unfinished seams and trailing threads aren't the Ricci way. Unraveling tweed picked out in thousands of tiny matte sequins, on the other hand, is something Copping can embrace. Evidence of the hand was everywhere: in the crinkled silk duchesse of a porcelain blue cocktail number, in the way a sweater sashed closed in the back with a swath of chiffon, and in the skinny leather belts made from shoe straps buckled together. Sonia Boyajian's found-object earrings and necklaces added to the atmosphere. Elsewhere, Copping was content to celebrate simple prettiness: A tea dress in white and pink tulip accents hinted at an earlier time without feeling nostalgic or retro. For evening, he shook up his familiar Ricci formula, swapping mermaid gowns for dresses shorter in front than in back or a loose-fitting, floor-length tank with jet bead embroidery. Anna Ewers' sculpted bodice gown was serenely gorgeous—a very fitting exit.
25 September 2014
Peter Copping reported that the discovery of a three-volume set of books celebrating 125 years ofNational Geographicset him on his way for Resort. It was surprising news from the Nina Ricci designer, who is more often influenced by grand interiors and historical figures than he is by native cultures at this hyper-French, hyper-feminine brand. No surprise, then, that he used a light touch. The collection didn't look "tribal" by any stretch of the imagination, but it had a pleasing variety of moods and looks.From America, he lifted the motorcycle jacket and overalls. Rendered in tweed and lace, their counterculture and workwear associations were all but swept away; only their casual attitude remained. Photographs of Cuban women circa the 1950s influenced the collection's bold flower prints (Copping often used the reverse side of the prints to conjure a sun-bleached feeling), while pictures of Caribbean schoolgirls inspired the trim blue button-down he paired with a flippy skirt in a deep shade of brownish-red—a great wear-to-work outfit, by the way. Images of face painting from Africa became a graphic microprint on the stretch cotton he used for a three-piece skirtsuit. The third piece was a saucy bra—swap it for one of his special knit sweaters to make the suit office-appropriate. Copping may yet be at his most sublime when he's thinkingParisienne, as was the case with a gorgeous smoking gown whose ribbon straps descended the sides of the body to create tuxedo stripes. Still, this persuasive offering served as a timely reminder that Nina Ricci is more than just evening dresses.
10 June 2014
Start following Peter Copping on Instagram (@PeterRicci) and you'll soon discover that the Nina Ricci designer has a serious thing for interiors. A group of photos of his favorite interiors was his starting point today, and it just goes to show that designers are at their best when they do what they know. This was one of Copping's strongest collections in a while—alive with intense colors, like the gorgeous iris of a long-sleeve, high-neck silk dress, but quite soft in spirit and mood. Much of it was inspired by loungewear, after all.The organization of the show loosely followed a woman going about her day: skirtsuits and wrap coats for work, pajama separates in knits backed with leather or silk to relax in when she returns home, and finally cocktail attire and gala dresses for when she leaves again at night. But even when she's out of the house, the Nina Ricci woman will bring the comforts of home with her next fall. Copping's double-face coats draped around the body like blankets, and his evening dresses took their cue from the boudoir, be it the unstructured nightshirt shape of a blush-pink frock appliquéd with lace flowers or the bra-strap closure of an LBD patchworked from silk and lace. With a neckline-to-hem inset of sheer black lace, Kati Nescher's long dress was the most provocative one we've ever seen on a Ricci runway. (Side note: Does anyone slink down the catwalk quite like she does these days?) It came as a surprise, but sexy suits this label.
26 February 2014
A lady cannot live on lacy silk slipdresses alone, as tempting as the notion is. Growing the Nina Ricci brand means expanding the hyper-feminine look and feel of the clothes and accessories in new directions.Urbanandsportywere words that cropped up as Peter Copping discussed his new Pre-Fall collection for the label. Both applied to a zip-front black leather and lace jacket and its matching miniskirt. If it was a surprise to see those pieces in Coppings lineup, it was not an unwelcome one. He handled a fitted motorcycle jacket in a shaggy fake fur with the same confidence.The rest of the collection found the designer exploring more familiar territory. Hes always had a playful touch with knits. Todays highlight was a heavy-gauge crewneck with a subtly nipped-in waist, although a tiny cardi with a cutaway back covered in lace was a close second. Florals are rarely missing from a Nina Ricci collection. This time around, Copping manipulated them on the computer to create the blurry, fuzzed-out prints he used on a pair of wispy dresses. Flowers featured on a pair of gorgeous evening columns, too. Their long sleeves conveyed an assured ease, as did Copping's other after-dark proposition: silk pajama pants paired with a patchwork lace T-shirt.
6 January 2014
"It's masculine meets feminine." As many times as we've heard that, it's never been uttered by Peter Copping at Nina Ricci. This Paris label is as femme as it gets, so Copping's Spring collection was something new. "I was looking at the eighteenth century, when men were romantic," he said. In other words, there were no Wall Street-ready pinstripes here, but rather modern interpretations of tailcoats. As a sheer white scrim was drawn across the length of the Tuileries tent, the first model emerged in a collarless redingote, only a sliver of her appliquéd lace dress peeking out from its hem. From there on, Copping set up the boy-girl interplay in countless ways: a bib-front tuxedo top was married to a mirror-strewn pencil skirt; other skirts came with shirttail-shaped hems; and a delicate knit was accompanied by cropped pants in a suit-lining stripe.The details invited close study. The only thing is, Copping did nearly the first half of the show entirely in white. It would've been more compelling to see him turn his delightful color sense to his chosen topic. When the Sevres blue did arrive on strapless duchesse satin dresses, it was a revelation. Pictures do it little justice. The flower-print silks were just as riveting patchworked on a pleated V-neck dress or collaged with lace on a halterneck style. The whole collection was pretty, but it only really came alive at the end.
25 September 2013
The beating heart of Peter Copping's Resort collection for Nina Ricci was the silk prints. After the show, which was presented in the round, he said he based them on scarves found in the house's archives. There was nothing stuffy about a graphic tangerine, ivory, and black dress that he twisted and draped asymmetrically from the torso, though. The florals were a bit more expected from a label like Ricci, but again, Copping treated them in a thoroughly modern way: making sure that the patterns clashed on either side of a trim cardigan and tucking it into a sexy pencil skirt in another flower design.What has helped Copping revitalize the ultra-feminine, ultra-French codes of this house is his British irreverence. Citing exasperation with Europe's endless winter, he made sure colors popped: chartreuse met shocking pink, and he tossed an aqua linen coat over a mauve dress. Note also the electric-hued patent-leather pumps. Beyond irreverence, Copping is also exceedingly handy with an evening dress. A crisscross halter style in black with lace insets at the ribs quite literally caused our seatmate to catch her breath. In our book, the strapless stretch radzimir gown with rosettes at the hem that closed the show was the winner.
5 June 2013
Katia and Marielle Labèque performed "Two Movements for Two Pianos" by Philip Glass on side by side grand pianos at the Nina Ricci show tonight. It was tempting to sit transfixed as their fingers flew up and down the keys, but if you did that you missed a good collection from Peter Copping. It was inspired, he said, by a David Hamilton-lensed 1970s Ricci campaign featuring dancers, which led Copping to latch on to the idea of performers and spectators. Both groups led him to play to his strengths.Over the last few seasons, Copping has made a concerted effort to expand Nina Ricci's daywear offerings. His special little sweaters have become favorites among those in the know. Here, he riffed on warm-up clothes, layering knits of different gauges one on top of the other, and leaving the ribbon at the nape of a sweater untied as a ballerina would. The portrait neckline of a skirtsuit was draped with extra sleeves, like a sweatshirt tied around the shoulders; another jacket paired high-low style with quilted sweatpants that had a genuinely relaxed feel. Parkas also made their first appearance on the Ricci runway, the best in red wool with opera-coat lines and a fox-fur-trimmed hood.The evening fare felt more familiar: slipdresses patchworked from silk and lace; slightly askew, asymmetrically draped cocktail numbers. A few other dresses in duchesse satin were nipped and tucked and draped with an offhand virtuosity to create three-dimensional roses in the fabric. Particularly charming was a long black dress with a deep slit in back that revealed its ballerina-pink lining.
27 February 2013
Lucky the man who can while away the hours at Café de Flore in Paris and call it work. Peter Copping is determined to grow Nina Ricci's daywear brand and to be known for more than beautiful, romantic dresses. "I don't want to be a niche brand," he said, explaining a recent day spent at the Left Bank institution, where he observed the way the café's clientele (and what they're wearing) changes as morning becomes afternoon, and afternoon becomes evening. With those visions in his head, he turned out a collection as quintessentially French and feminine as they've always been under his leadership at the house, but one that was also more diversified.Copping used a wool plaid, for example, for everything from a draped, strapless shift to a traditional men's coat dressed up with a flocked velvet lapel. Outwear was an emphasis, as were separates. "Are we ready to see a camel coat again?" he asked, describing a narrowly tailored number in stretch jersey. Yes, in fact, we are. Clever knitwear (in this case, a trompe l'oeil twinset that was really just one sweater) still comes easier to him than, say, hip-slung trousers. But he's certainly no slouch in the skirtsuit department, showing a "tweed look" version in silk cloque shot through with a bouclé thread, and another in ivory stretch wool. And, of course, when it comes to eveningwear, he's in his element. A light blue silk 1930s dress with flocked floral cutouts would make an unlikely but inspired choice at the awards shows later this month.
6 January 2013
Coquette, meet dominatrix. For three years now Peter Copping has been polishing Nina Ricci's special brand of Parisienne chic. Backstage he said he felt it was time to "push it on further into new territory." Enter the leather bondage harness glimpsed beneath the opening look's wool jacket. Enter, as well, the swags of silk fringe decorating a silvery gray cocktail dress, the clear plastic trench printed with a fishnet pattern, and the leather pants. Yes, leather pants, embellished with little zips on the side—pull them open to reveal swatches of black lace. Lace that went almost otherwise ignored, save for underneath a chiffon dress in a shade of pool blue Copping described as "sick."The designer was clearly feeling loose this season. It showed in the holographic tweeds he chose for a pair of tailleurs, the exuberant polka dots of a fuchsia satin frock, and the showgirl sequins on a nude slipdress. He reined it in for just one black crepe gown. It faded quickly into memory amid the more surprising bits on the runway tonight.We're not completely sold on every element here; those bondage harnesses have become a bit of a fashion cliché in the wake of that Helmut Newton show at the Grand Palais. But on balance, Copping made a convincing case for breaking out of his comfort zone.
26 September 2012
"Beach to night and the seventies" were Peter Copping's starting points for Resort. His ending point: the sauciest, sexiest Nina Ricci collection he's done. Little bikinis were the foundation for everything from a bordeaux camisole and slip combo to a lilac cashmere sweater worn with a scuba-fabric skirt to peekaboo lace cocktail dresses. Some of the lace came with stretch built in, which created a relaxed, almost sporty vibe. Continuing in the dressed-down direction, Copping added denim to the lineup—a first for the label. There was an A-line coat finished in black grosgrain, as well as a neat little jacket and a barely-there asymmetric wrap mini that turned to reveal it was actually a pair of shorts. Another clever idea that put the emphasis on ease: a smocked blouse in a micro-print and a matching full skirt. "It's just smarter to give our girl options," Copping said.As deshabille as the mood was, dressing up is and always will be the raison d'être at Ricci. A delicate butterfly print dress with an embroidered white tulle bodice and handkerchief hem drew oohs and ahhs, as did its more dramatic cousin, a long gown in embroidered black tulle.
10 June 2012
Designers have been sizing up all season long. Nina Ricci's Peter Copping got in on the act tonight, conjuring a scene of young girls playing dress-up in their mother's and grandmother's clothes. Sleeves extended below the fingertips; too-large skirts were suspended from braces or hung slackly from the hips; and dresses were gathered at the torso, as if they'd been pinned to accommodate tiny waists. The collection had a sense of dishabille altogether different from last season's. There was a lot more bare skin on display for Spring, but this outing wound up seeming more provocative—like Lolita, but in French lingerie instead of 1950's American polyester.Copping gave a lot of the pieces a DIY spin, from slipdresses patched together with tweed and lace to tweedy jackets that had a relaxed, almost sporty feel, thanks to insets at the sides in semi-sheer silk. A coat was embroidered in a naïve, connect-the-dots style. Some pieces came off a little too undone, like a printed chiffon skirt that seemed to expose a couple of inches of pantyhose, but others retained their typical polish. A streamlined black coat was still chic, despite the fact that its blush pink fox collar was askew.Given Copping's chosen theme, you missed the grand evening looks he's known for when they didn't make their expected exit at the end of the show. Among the party confections he showed, a sheer black dress that revealed the outline of its slip underneath was best.
29 February 2012
The catalyst for Peter Copping's new collection was a book calledExactitudesby a pair of Dutch art photographers who took pictures of different people in almost identical outfits. "It got me thinking," he said, "about what the Nina Ricci uniform is." First and foremost among the house codes is the little black dress, so the mini show began with a trio of them, one in stretch radzimir, another in passementerie-trimmed velvet, and the last in a flocked butterfly motif borrowed from a kimono he picked up in Japan. Tweed skirtsuits are another house signature; here Copping whipped them up in a piece-washed style and another in a stretchy jersey that only looked like tweed.All that dwelling on uniforms eventually led the designer to the military looks that made up the strongest part of the collection. We can't live on cocktail frocks alone, and the little fuchsia sweater and draped and twisted pencil skirt in army green had a wear-everyday appeal that could turn into a growth business for the brand. Still, the most reliable thing about a Ricci pre-fall collection just might be the red-carpet fodder. We won't be surprised when we see the plunge-front black gown with the tulle bodice and stretchy, long column skirt at the Globes or SAG Awards later this month.
8 January 2012
Peter Copping named his Spring collection Zina after the artist Zina de Plagny, who collaborated with Nina Ricci in the 1930's, designing prints. Copping found out about her not in the house's archives but in aWorld of Interiorsarticle about her daughter, who had just discovered a treasure trove of her mother's work. "I thought to myself that I should call her, but she called me," he explained. "It was fate." Zina's florals had a second life on Copping's runway tonight, cut into a sexy sheath with a scooped-out back, a printed top and matching high-waisted shorts, and most interestingly, a coat that was sandwiched between two layers of gray chiffon quilted with silver thread.But there was more at play here than pretty florals. Lingerie, a big Spring trend (and one that Copping got an early jump on at Resort), was a central element. It came in the form of bra tops—which he proposed as underpinnings for dressy stretch satin skirtsuits—or as delicate, lacy slipdresses, including one in navy and black that was particularly fetching. More surprising was what the designer described as his "Ricci biker lady" quilted leather jacket and coat. The rest of the collection was firmly situated on the dressed-up side of the spectrum—like so many others this season, Copping cited the golden age of couture as a starting point, and he accessorized with cage hats—so it was smart to add some daywear to the mix. Balloon pants might've been a step too far, but the fisherman sweater rendered as a sweet little zip-up jacket was a welcome addition.
28 September 2011
"It's Paris fashion week in New York," Peter Copping joked at Style.com's Nina Ricci appointment, referring to all the European brands at Milk Studios today showing off their wares. But nowhere did it feel morefrançaisthan at his presentation. Credit that to the ultra-feminine look Copping has crafted for the label over the last two years and to his Resort reference points, specifically the fifties and sixties.Copping opened with a pink suit, the skirt pencil-slim and the jacket matador-short. The signature lingerie details (zigzag stitching, elastic band waist) were in full effect; this is a designer fully in command of his house's codes. And he's familiar enough with midcentury designs to know that they weren't necessarily liberating, so he's cut an hourglass dress in a stretchy printed linen and added a little bit of extra room to the bodice of a strapless cocktail number so his girl can eat on her night on the town, not just sip. Copping also kept things modern by balancing the collection's candy colors with neutrals; a taupe blouse and violet tweed skirt combo looked particularly fresh. Another clever idea: the bright bikinis that he showed as underpinnings to daywear. We'd like to give a special shout-out to the fabulous fifties-ish pumps with Perspex heels that revealed the nails holding them together within. We don't think the French have a word for sick, as in "so perversely good they're sick," but that's exactly what they were.
12 June 2011
If you cast your mind back over the last month and a half of awards shows, a dress that really stands out is the one Nicole Kidman wore to the Screen Actors Guild Awards, a navy number with a low-cut black lace back from Nina Ricci's Peter Copping. It captured the essence of the brand that Copping has called his own for two years now: unapologetically feminine and hopelessly romantic, yet with a modern spark. For Fall he didn't verge from his established path, but the collection seemed to be rendered with a more confident hand. The red-carpet coup may have helped that, but so did what Copping called strong orders for his pre-fall collection.As other designers have done this season, he used his pre-collection as a template for Fall. The stretchy fabric of Kidman's midnight blue gown rematerialized in the light blue of a long-sleeve day dress with a gathered neckline, and the pre-season's bouclé tweed was cut into a perfectly imperfect skirtsuit and a slightly oversize robe coat.Oversize because Copping's point of departure this season was portraiture, and he designed that coat and others after an artist's model's studio robe. Sargent'sMadame Xwas on his mood board and it inspired a black velvet gown in the famous painting's image; the lace insets are what made it new. Cecil Beaton's equally well known 1948 shot of Charles James' evening gowns was also pinned to the wall; its modern-day counterpart came down the runway in crinkly powder blue radzimir. This was another step in the right direction for Copping and the Ricci brand.
2 March 2011
If there are any celebrity stylists still scrambling to findthedress for their client's Golden Globe appearance this coming Sunday, please direct your attention to look 16 from Peter Copping'sNina Riccipre-fall collection. Sultry yet still demurely covered up, the navy knit gown with a plunging black lace back is an award winner in our book. Since taking over the reins at the romantic French label in 2009, Copping has had the most success with dresses, and there were lots of lovely options at his intimate show this morning. In addition to that red-carpet stunner, he showed a polka-dot chiffon that fell in tiers to the floor and a bustier hourglass number in tweed, both of which were worn over clingy knit sweaters for a played down, casual look. A black dress in pleats and lace, meanwhile, was layered over a polka-dot bra that matched the bows on the model's patent pumps. "I call it the new twinset," Copping laughed.He was joking, of course, but that sort of charming detail is becoming one of his hallmarks. You saw it in the unusual Japanese-made lace embroidered with paillettes and jewels that he used for a 1950's-ish cocktail dress and in the drawstring-gathered neck of a jade green sweater paired with a cerise pink knit pencil skirt. A bold way with color is another signature Copping is developing, and he hinted that it would be an important direction for his upcoming Fall show.
9 January 2011
It was starting to look as if somebody had flicked the dimmer switch in these early days of Paris fashion week, but suddenly Peter Copping went and turned on the brights. Nina Ricci's artistic director began experimenting with neons for Resort, but just on accent pieces. Here, vivid colors like acid yellow, shocking pink, cherry, and purple were an integral part of the show's message. "I wanted it to be up and feel good," Copping said.A savvy plan, to be sure, and one he approached by delving into the house archives—not necessarily the clothes, but rather the history of collaborations with artists. Of the talents in question, Copping explained, Christian Bérard provided the sweet palette; Janine Janet, embellishments like iridescent paillettes and crystals; and Marc Lalique, the lovely watercolor floral prints. And because Robert Ricci was one of his mother Nina's most important collaborators, Copping also had masculine touches among the signature ruffles and lace.There were some misses, like a shapeless gazar coat drippy with feathers and a zealously frilly pleated top. Ironically, tailored pieces like the sweeping cotton trench that Copping paired with a chiffon dress were among the show's strongest looks. Still, the girly stuff will fit right in this season.
29 September 2010
Since Peter Copping arrived at Nina Ricci a year ago, fashion has moved in a decidedly minimalist direction. But that hasn't tempted Marc Jacobs' former right-hand man at Louis Vuitton to go spare. "There are no camel coats here," the designer said, laughing, at an informal presentation this morning. Loosely inspired by Jackie Onassis and her 1960's Greece, the Resort collection is awash in cherry pink, blush, and soft neutrals, with shots of fluorescent pink courtesy of delicate bras and a retro-ruffled bikini. Fabrics like washed parachute silks, pleated georgettes, and lingerie lace add to the ultrafeminine feeling of the lineup.Tailoring was a surprise hit on Copping's Fall runway, so he's continued to expand the category here in signature Ricci style, turning out a softly structured piece-washed jacket and loose tuxedo pants with pleated front panels or an unlined, raw-edged trench (contrast piping on its interior meant the latter number was just as pretty on the inside). Eveningwear, though, is where this designer's eye for the charming detail really shines. An ivory- and white-lace fitted T-shirt dress worn over a peach slip will have its celebrity fans, but stylists will be scrambling over a classically draped cerise pink gown with multiple bows up the back. Why? It has that winning combination of looking effortless yet making a major impact.
13 June 2010
Effectively, this Fall is Peter Copping's debut as a full-fledged runway designer after spending a decade as Marc Jacobs' right-hand man at Louis Vuitton. Though he's been at Nina Ricci since last spring, this collection was the first to be given an official on-schedule show since Olivier Theyskens left the house. What Copping showed certainly demonstrated a distinct departure from Theyskens' high-drama, dark Belgian romance. At first sight, Copping's take on Nina Ricci is much more flowery and safely feminine, full of pretty, just below knee-length satin slipdresses; 3-D haberdashery floral appliqués; and hints of the Belle Époque in bustle-back skirts.That part of the collection, as well as the four long finale dresses, seemed to be positioning Nina Ricci as the Parisian answer to, say, Alberta Ferretti or Collette Dinnigan. That's a respectable thing to be aiming for commercially, but looked at from the creative angle, Copping still has to assert himself as a designer with his own voice. A lot that was on the runway looked too much like holdovers from his days at Vuitton, where Marc Jacobs handed him sole authorship of cruise and pre-collections. Still, new house, new start; and by next season, maybe the distance will have given Copping the chance to whip up a new raison d'être for the Ricci label.
3 March 2010
Buoyed by what he called strong retailer response to his runway debut for Nina Ricci, Peter Copping produced a pre-fall collection that started where Spring left off. There was a similar soft color palette, this time rendered in washed loden wool, thick cashmere, and tweedy jacquards. The frills were back as well, but Copping gave them a utilitarian spin: The second storm flap of a dramatic cotton trench did double duty as a ruffled collar (cinched with a faux-fur scarf), and the delicate chiffon revers that cascaded down the front of the jacket of a sky blue skirtsuit could be removed for a cleaner silhouette. If a cardigan with four sleeves was a surprise, it wasn't the least bit gimmicky: Knotted behind the back, the extra sleeves created a chic, couture-ish line. And the designer extended the same sort of user-friendly, two-in-one approach into evening in the form of a lace-bodice silk gown topped by an easy, sleeveless jacket knotted at the bust. Now in his third season at the French house, Copping seems comfortable enough to inject a bit of fun into the brand's ultra-femme aesthetic—and it's paying off.
10 January 2010
In the latest round of Parisian-designer musical chairs, Peter Copping—formerly chief assistant to Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton —has arrived at Nina Ricci, which was recently vacated by Olivier Theyskens, who in turn, not so long ago, replaced Lars Nilsson. Hard to keep up, let alone get a grip on what this house is supposed to be about? Absolutely. There's a danger, with so much change, that professional audiences, let alone customers, can lose the will to care about a brand. That, presumably, is why the decision was made to debut Copping's collection in the salon above the store, bringing the whole thing in-house and making a concerted effort to refocus the brand on the frilly femininity Nina Ricci once stood for.Copping, who is British (he joined LV with Jacobs), has luckily arrived at a time when soft and girly things in face-powder pink are part of the season's trendscape. He opened the show with a dotted tulle cardigan (bra on show) and a tiered perforated skirt, moving through cute layerings of tiny lace knits, silk dresses, and leggings, all in delicate pinks. It quickly became apparent that his 12 years designing selling pieces for Vuitton haven't gone to waste. Copping isn't a bull in a froufrou china shop. He knows how to put together a look that can break down into real, mouthwatering pieces for retail. He also proved he could lightly render the epitome of Nina Ricci-ness—tiered ruffles—in a pretty strapless dress that looked genuinely young.After that, though, when the show turned to black and lace and one floor-sweeping navy and black Edwardiana dress that looked like the sad shadow of Theyskens' tenure trailing through the room, Copping seemed on less certain ground. Understandably, he hasn't had enough time to fully articulate what he's capable of, or to work the Louis Vuitton-isms fully out of his system. At first sight, though, Ricci is now in a safe pair of hands—but the jury's still out till next season.
30 September 2009
The show might have been his swan song at Nina Ricci, but Olivier Theyskens saw it through with a fierce, surreal poetry no one who witnessed it will forget. Vastly tall, his strong-shouldered women were walking, trancelike, on what looked like an impossibility: a laced-up platform ankle boot with a sickle-shaped hole at the back. No heels at all. Their clothes—everything from strangely flowing pants to incredibly cut suits to probably the best black leather jacket in Paris and evening dresses with swooping, furling skirts—were a tour de force. Between the strange atmosphere, the supersharp, almost Mugler-esque jackets, and the sculpted forms, it rounded up everything fashion-watchers have known Theyskens is capable of, and went even further."I was thinking of a nocturnal mood," he said backstage, trying to explain how he'd orchestrated it. "Not nightclubbing at all. Something moonlit—a bit magical." Oddly enough, it wasn't melancholy and never lapsed into the costumey gothic mindset Theyskens once inhabited. Instead, the collection was a proud—if not exactly defiant—series of reminders of the chic, precise way he used to cut a jacket when he was running his own line, a flashback to the corseted lingerie he perfected at Rochas, and an underscoring of the genius he has applied to making grand event dresses during his tenure at Ricci. Backstage, Theyskens was gracious and smiling as he received sincere congratulations for an outing that showcased all his talents, offered many things for many women to wear for many occasions, and was thereby the most mature and salable collection he's designed to date. Quite why he saved his best till last is a mystery, but Ricci's management may just be kicking itself for letting him go.
4 March 2009
Olivier Theyskens called his 16-look pre-fall lineup a "micro-show." Micro, in more ways than one: His dove-print silk dresses, miniskirt suits, and briefs were all thigh-baring. A pair of motorcycle jackets—one in black leather and the other in lipstick red ponyskin—played into the designer's other talking point, rockabilly, as did the over-the-knee shearling boots with clear resin heels modeled on L'Air du Temps perfume bottles. But the collection was not without its romantic moments. Case in point: a light-as-air long belted navy dress with billowy sleeves and a suggestive slit.
11 January 2009
Olivier Theyskens' collection for Nina Ricci was like watching the performance of a long piece of self-referential romantic poetry. It's a world of his own, and to fully appreciate it, you need to know what's gone before in his work: his love of Edwardiana and tailcoats; the fluttery, flyaway cutting; the delicate prints and the dusty, organic woodland-floor palettes he likes.This season, he said he was "inspired by dance and dresses that each evolved their own shape, short in the front and long in the back." Though there were some of the flange-sided, jodhpurlike pants Theyskens has been developing for the past few seasons and a sighting or two of his signature jackets (like an off-white crackle leather with Victoriana sleeves, or one that was made from blue-gray chiffon), most of the show was devoted to a long sequence of trail-y dresses. Essentially, it was a single silhouette, with a high collar, leg-of-mutton sleeves, and skirts cut away to show long lengths of leg, clad in sheer black tights, walking on high-heeled pumps.As the dresses came and went on a long runway, the vista of floating trains and looped-up demi bustles had a certain cinematic beauty and technical ingenuity—georgette panels became fused with hosiery to flow from the leg in movement. In all? Exquisite and ethereal though it was, the vision seemed too limited to take Theyskens' talent anywhere new.
27 September 2008
He may be a dyed-in-the-wool romantic, but what sets Olivier Theyskens apart is his talent for finessing nostalgia to make it wholly new. After his presentation, the designer said he had wanted to re-create something old-fashioned in "a cool, urban way for a modern girl." He achieved that by updating the countryside staple of granny cardi over floral dress: His thickly cabled knits hung just so over dresses and blouses with curving seams in subtle Liberty-esque prints (emphasis on the "esque": These were not florals, but rather abstract patterns inspired by petrol stains and broken china). Elsewhere, the designer infused denim with refinement, using a linen blend and cutting it into an elegant skirtsuit and trench. For evening, there were Theyskens' classics—a cloud-gray satin tuxedo, an acid green gown with snaking ruffles—but he also brought Victoriana into 2008, showing constructed, lean gowns with matching "boyfriend" jackets. Who said that romance is dead?
15 June 2008
Under Olivier Theyskens' guidance, Nina Ricci is going through a metamorphosis. The label was originally a frilly lady brand, but he is steering it toward a young, hip girl with an unshowy rockster personality. To get there, Theyskens took her hand today and led her through a long trail in the woods, dressing her in clothes tinted and textured with the vegetal yellowy-greeny-brownish colors of fallen leaves or hibernating moths. "Strange and poetic," he called it, "but not dark."In practical terms, the whole of the first passage was about layerings of soft jackets, wispy underlayers, and an extended riff on multiple versions of a twisty-legged pant—jodhpurlike above, skinny-legged below, each shading seamlessly downward into a matching shoe-boot. If the pant never quite hit the mark (there's a general question mark hovering over "creative" trousers this season, and Theyskens' didn't remove it), the array of jackets and the tonal subtleties kept the eye seduced. Ocher, dull yellows, khaki, rust, and chestnut progressed into greens, plastery pinks, and dusty blues as the top layers resolved into a series of great cutaway tailcoats with rounded shoulders reminiscent of beetle wings.Underscored by an ominous soundtrack, the cumulative effect touched another note on the scale of sub-horror-movie themes that have been playing through the collections. Finally, the chrysalis imagery broke open into dresses and strapless evening gowns, some detailed with a suggestion of vestigial wings. That put Theyskens back on familiar territory—a long way from conventional party dressing, and recognizably faithful to the sensibility he began working with as a gothy, romantic Belgian youngster at the beginning of his career.
1 March 2008
The much talked-about gown he's made for Lauren Davis' Cartagena, Colombia, wedding to Andres Santo Domingo is still under wraps, but Olivier Theyskens was happy to be in New York today, showing off his pre-fall collection. Motifs that are quickly becoming Nina Ricci signatures—short dresses that twist around the body; narrow but never uptight suits; slouchily asymmetric sweaters; and a muted, dusty palette—abounded. This time, they called to mind not club kids coming home from an all-nighter, as the designer's Spring collection did, but the more sophisticated atmosphere of the London and Paris salons of the 1930's. Imagine Nancy Cunard or Vita Sackville-West lounging in a dove gray dress with a rolled silk neckline that trailed down the bodice like a wisp of smoke, and you get the picture. Equally lovely was a watercolor floral silk evening gown—it'd be just the thing for a society wedding, but we're guessing Davis doesn't plan on sharing Theyskens this weekend.
14 January 2008
"It was a group of girls you'd see on the street in the early morning coming from a ball," explained Olivier Theyskens. His wispy raggle-taggle troupe was wending its way home in a particularly poetic state of dishevelment, of course. Their clothes were ombré-tinted in subtle grays and browns, as if smudged by the murky first light of a city day. The opening girl had pulled on her boyfriend's dusty tux, which had come apart at the back, over an artfully wilted twisted satin tunic. Others had draped sloppy, holey cardigans over the shredded remains of charmeuse and chiffon, trailing stringy feather boas as they walked. Some, possibly, were even down to their shirts or slips (you know how you start losing things on a long night out?), and one had wrapped a blanket—or maybe the dance-hall curtain—over her chiffon gown.One shouldn't read too much into the narrative, though, because Theyskens doesn't come from the older generation of theme-led designers. Instead, this collection was a reassertion of his Belgian identity. It's as if he reached a fork in his career when he arrived at Nina Ricci, deciding to take the path of underground edginess rather than Parisian chic—a distinct divergence from the road he took at Rochas. Now his vision skews young and urban, and includes jodhpur-ish jeans, patchworked tour T-shirts, hip baseball jackets, and a sense of working toward a new, layered assemblage of casual dressing. Up to a point, anyway. For evening, Theyskens was fully back within his familiar zone of strapless ball-gown romance. The paper-thin silver fan-pleated taffeta, twisted metallic velvet, and diaphanous chiffon poufed in back with a demi-crinoline were beautiful, if a tad familiar—but in terms of interest, what he's doing for day is the thing to watch.
6 October 2007
What makes Olivier Theyskens such a compelling designer is the way his collections tend to riff on and grow out of what came before. For resort, the former Rochas frontman continued to explore the themes he established at his first Nina Ricci runway show in March. There were more of the twisting-around-the-body evening dresses, but this time sans the feathers and sculpted "wings." Instead, he pieced spirals together with patchworks of fabric for an elegant and ultimately more subtle effect than the one produced by his fantastical fall creations. The color-blocking theme extended into casual cocktail numbers and short T-shirt dresses. What felt particularly fresh were his suits, which ranged from a skinny navy style in satin to a boxier version of almost hobo proportions that was romantic and rebellious at once, not unlike the rest of the collection or, indeed, Theyskens himself.
9 July 2007
Olivier Theyskens said he wanted “to introduce a new wave of cool—something urban and gray-ish, but nonchalant, fragile, and superlight” at Nina Ricci. Since he’s only just exited the now-defunct Rochas, the collection he showed, though suffused with his signature poetics, felt more transitional than definitive. Like several other designers of his age, Theyskens is accurately intuiting the fact that fashion needs to address a younger, more casual level of dressing, but at the same time, pressure is on him to stay within the fuzzy parameters of the not-so-defined genre of Ricci femininity.So to begin with, Theyskens focused on teardrop-shaped down-filled blousons, twisted sweater dresses, and diagonally zipped biker jackets that fell open in soft, petal-like folds. If there was a discernible Nina Ricci reference, it was in the spiraling cuts reminiscent of the crystal flacons of the classic Ricci L’Air du Temps perfume bottle. What with the palette of pearl gray, slate, and charcoal, and the introduction of denim, the collection fell somewhere in the range of Rick Owens, the L.A. designer whose clothes have a link to Belgian streetwise aesthetics.That, of course, is no coincidence: Theyskens is himself a Belgian designer who, before his tenure at Rochas, made an impact, at the age of 21, with strong, dark collections that electrified fashion in the late nineties. His mood now is far more ethereal—the downy feathers floating from the girls’ hair established that quite beautifully. Nevertheless, two soft but fiercely cut pantsuits served as a reminder of the tailoring talent that remained latent while he concentrated on femininity at Rochas. Excellent as those were, they added to the tension that hovered over the collection. Theyskens laid on an irresistible finale of trail-y, ragged-edged white and chartreuse fantasy gowns, but still, the question about where he intends to take Ricci was left in the air.
3 March 2007
Lars Nilsson tried to pull off a curious mix chez Nina Ricci today. Perhaps emboldened by the success of his preppy spring line, he set out to inject a bit of the sportif into his delicate, feminine fare—but it didn't always stick. The show's first look—an organza mille-feuille dress topped with a bronze cord vest and jacket—came across as quite heavy, even if you ignored the riding hat that was shown with it. Nilsson seemed to get bogged down in the details of his sportswear. A pea coat with three-inch bands of beaver fur above its cuffs was undeniably chic, but it's harder to picture his uptown girls sporting the skinny, cropped-below-the-knee page-boy pants of a three-piece suit in mustard corduroy.What his soigné fans love him for is his easy way with a dress. Several of the versions he showed today featured an artsy, swirling print, while the others came in those multicolored layers of organza, chiffon, or silk gauze. His facility with such concoctions makes spring a natural for Nilsson. His next challenge is figuring out how to translate the weightless drift that distinguished last season's Empire-line gowns to fabrics with a more substantial and sophisticated heft.
3 March 2006
When a label is sailing along as smoothly as Lars Nilsson's Nina Ricci, the temptation to stick with familiar formulas is hard to resist. But if the audience, which included the burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese, was expecting a reprise of the designer's lingerie-inspired frocks, it was in for a surprise. He instead sent out dresses in crisp men's shirting fabrics. These billowed rather than draped, and came with shoulder straps and Empire-waist bows and belts in thick satin ribbon.On a similarly unexpected note, Nilsson proposed seersucker for evening, pairing blue-and-white-striped trousers with a silver sequined shell. What a snappy idea—one that he might have explored further. It would've been interesting to see him use seersucker for, say, a ball skirt, worn with an embellished tank or sweater, or even for a full-blown C.Z. Guest-style gown. Still, the new generation of socialites for whom Nilsson designs will find plenty to love in this collection, from a simple trench in cotton satin to standout suits with bell-shape skirts in cotton drill.Of course, romance and the house of Ricci are nearly inseparable, as Nilsson well knows. Thanks to his beautiful color palette of berry red, gold beige, and boreal pink, this show was not without its feminine charms.
7 October 2005
Chez Nina Ricci, Lars Nilsson was interested in melding the soft with the hard. He leavened the fragile dresses that he loves, light and airy as 1930's lingerie, with sturdy elements to protect them from the cold: a blond fur jacket with ballooning Renaissance sleeves caught with marmalade ribbons; lean, long-line tweedy coats; and sporty swing-back jackets. Nilsson seemed more comfortable, though, with soft pieces ("flou," in couture workroom parlance). Standouts included fragile blouses traced with insets of lace, pretty evening gowns, including one in blush-pink chiffon frosted with crystal, and a gray chiffon djellaba casting a shadow over the tree-of-life print on the under-dress beneath. These were so effortlessly constructed they seemed as though they had been blown by some zephyr onto the body.But there was hardness even in the lingerie elements, courtesy of Nilsson's collaborator Mr. Pearl, the corset king. This season, the elaborate lingerie pieces he develops for the house included a spectacular wasp-waist, silvery satin strapless evening dress, with the seams and boning of a nineteenth century corset. (Not all Pearl's pieces are this demanding on the wearer; as those chiffon lingerie frocks spilled from shoulders, or a lacy mohair knit sweater plunged daringly low, the flash of a perfectly constructed satin brassiere revealed the subtler aspects of his work.)For Nilsson, trees are as beautiful as the flowers that are emblematic of this house, and he delighted in prints that celebrated them—from that tree of life to a shadowy autumnal fall of leaves. These elements gently evoked the work of twenties Swedish artist and architect Josef Frank (whose textile prints are enjoying a renaissance) and revealed the designer's fondness for the folkloric aspect of his native country. They also tapped beautifully into the turn-of-the-century, fairy-tale spirit that is one of fall's more poetic trends.
4 March 2005
For Lars Nilsson at Nina Ricci, third time really was a charm. Nilsson's first collection for this French house, best known for its scents, concentrated on lace, lingerie, and ladylike suits. His second was an eclectic mix—tweed jackets, sequin capelets, tees under chiffon blouses—in which some of the best elements got lost. For spring 2005, the designer successfully merged these two worlds—and all in a beautiful color palette of orchid, pebble, and blush (Ricci-speak for pale mauve, light khaki, and rose pink).Nilsson's vision of spring, then, included both a slim top-stitched taffeta skirtsuit and a more casual combination of purple cardigan, scarf-print silk blouse, and above-the-knee skirt, its hem injected with a touch of volume. The standouts were the jackets (cut close to the body, with narrow shoulders, high armholes, and cropped sleeves) and dresses—in particular, one that was draped, bloused, and belted, the other a sweet confection of cotton, beading, and eyelet embroidery.This was a somewhat repetitive show that would have benefited from a stricter edit. But the handwork on display—the embroideries, the lace trims, the ribboned lace—was typical of the love and respect that young designers at established French houses are now showing for couturelike details and finishes. Long may it last.
8 October 2004
The current spate of designer departures from European houses has taught the fashion world a very important lesson: Know thy customer. Tom Ford at Gucci knew exactly what kind of woman he was dressing and succeeded. Julien Macdonald at Givenchy clearly didn't and failed. Does Lars Nilsson know who the Nina Ricci woman is? He certainly has the talent to rise to the occasion but he is also clearly still fine-tuning the answer to that question.He isn't helped in this elusive search by the label's total lack of identity. Unlike those other moribund houses that have been given the kiss of life (with varying degrees of success), Nina Ricci, the fragrance aside, means absolutely nada. It had no defining moment in its past; it has no design icon that can be reworked for a modern audience; and, while it's French, it doesn't resonate with the kind of magical chic that some Parisian houses do.These are not, of course, problems of Nilsson's making, but they add to the challenges he faces. Oddly, he seemed far surer of where to take the house last spring, when he showed a fine, focused color palette of brown, blue, yellow, and orange and a sophisticated mix of sharp suits, soft dresses, and sweet lingerie. This collection felt more muddled in its approach. Given Nilsson's strengths with color and decoration, it was inevitable that he would be drawn to the vintagey, just-pulled-it-out-of-my-closet, highly personal feel that is driving the season. The ruffled tweed jacket and cropped pants that opened the show worked, as did the billowing silk blouses; the tulle-veiled dresses worn with sparkly shawls didn't. And the cumbersome triangular shrugs were just odd from a designer who never normally does tricky. Perhaps next season will prove that old adage: Third time's a charm.
8 March 2004
"Lightness, color, femininity," said Lars Nilsson, summing up a sweet debut collection for Nina Ricci that focused on wispy, weightless daywear. But wasn't Nina Ricci the sophisticated tailor of her day? Didn't she dress ladies of a certain age in classic suits? Nilsson, who proved that he could cut a mean jacket and pants during his tenure at Bill Blass, abandoned tailoring altogether for his summer statement, save a single black wool gabardine jacket worn with knitted shorts. "I was after something more sensual," he explained.Hence all the super-delicate lingerie slips and bra tops with spider-web lace or tulle inserts that came with Bermuda shorts, flippy skirts, and silk blousons. The colors—lemon, tangerine, almond, mint—were delicious, especially when they sparkled with Lurex thread or were embroidered with transparent beads. And the dresses, from chiffon confections sprinkled with bows to slender jersey tanks, were perfectly in tune with this season's passion for all things pretty.The purposeful femininity was no doubt intended to stamp the Nina Ricci brand with a strong, and much needed, sense of identity. But the collection overall was too floaty, and more tailoring might have anchored it better. We’ll just have to wait until fall to see how Mr. Nilsson cuts his trousers.
10 October 2003