Nina Ricci, the French fashion house known for feminine, ladylike clothing and famous perfumes, was founded in 1932 by Nina Ricci, born Maria Nielli, a seamstress turned couture salon stylist, and her son, Robert.

From the start, elegant French women and their daughters streamed through the doors of maison Ricci, seeking debutante dresses, party frocks, and wedding trousseaux distinguished by fine details and luxurious fabrics. To achieve her figure-flattering cuts, the seasoned dressmaker draped on a live model, pinning and snipping with a couturier’s care.

In the ’50s, authorized copies of Nina Ricci couture designs could be found stateside at high-end retailers like Bergdorf Goodman and Henri Bendel. By the ’60s, the house was at the forefront of an emerging trend in Paris couture: ready-to-wear. Mademoiselle Ricci, made for the American market, debuted in 1962.

In 1998, the house was acquired by Spanish company Puig. The couture division was shuttered, and Canadian designer Nathalie Gervais was given the task of creating a new identity for the brand. Perfume sales had long been the company’s strongest source of profits—in particular, the best-selling L’Air du Temps, with its instantly recognizable Lalique flacon—but from now on the firm would concentrate on ready-to-wear.

Gervais only lasted at her post a short while; her eventual successor, Swedish designer Lars Nilsson, doubled ready-to-wear sales. In 2006, Belgian wunderkind Olivier Theyskens arrived. Heaps of praise were lavished on Theyskens’s exquisitely crafted red carpet showstoppers and his vision of moody romance. Despite the critics’ huzzahs, however, his collections failed to hit the mark commercially, and he departed.

Vogue credited English designer Peter Copping, the brand’s artistic director from 2009 to 2014, with the comeback of the femme. Copping, who told Vogue that his appointment was an answer to childhood dreams, leavened the Ricci legacy of romantic couture touches with a more lighthearted attitude. He left for Oscar de la Renta and was replaced by Carven’s Guillaume Henry. Following Henry's departure in 2018, the brand named two new creative directors: Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter, known for their experimental menswear label Botter.

Nina Ricci

Fall/Winter 2024 • Womenswear

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