Nina Ricci – the fashion designer, the book, and her perfume
Dear readers, if you are into French fashion and history, whenever you visit Paris, Palais Galliera should be the museum that you should go, as they organize different historic fashion exhibitions, either by certain themes or specific reputed fashion designers, sometimes even artists, throughout the year. During my past trips to Paris, I have visited there twice, once for their retrospective exhibition of the reputed late French haute-couture fashion designer, Jeanne Lanvin, and then the second time, it was another retrospective exhibition of the glamorous late Italian-naturalized French singer and actress, Dalida. Being there to see a range of rare and valuable archive fashion pieces and artefacts, arranged and displayed in an organized way that tells the story of a certain period or era, it is always exhilarating and an unforgettable lifetime experience, to see these rare fashion pieces up-close and personal. Speaking of French fashion and history, today I would like to do a little retrospective here for a French historic fashion house, despite its name might be forgotten, however, with the young British-American designer taking the helm of the creative direction of this brand recently, it does draw my attention to look back the glamorous legacy of this Parisian fashion house once again, and that is, Nina Ricci.
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Photo source: Pinterest
In my mind, Nina Ricci is undoubtedly a historic French fashion house but it’s more on the classic side when it comes to its fashion style, in particular, for their menswear (yes, the house did menswear in the past, sadly it seems it is no longer produced and available), my memory about their womenswear, in particular the old-world ones, however, is very vague, the only thing that I can recall about the Nina Ricci brand, probably, is their classic feminine style and silhouette back in the 50s and 60s (the time when Diana Vreeland was with Harper’s Bazaar and then Vogue magazine), and their small shop-in-shop located along with other premium classic French ladies fashion counters, in a combination of the intense strong floral aromatic fragrance that screams “rich mature lady” fashion, on the ground floor of the traditional high-end Japanese department stores back in the late 70s and 80s, where bargain-hunting mom was busy (and crazy at certain times) digging into the pile of on-sale clothes and handbags to see what treasures that she could find, at the same time, scolding or even twisting her young child boy’s ear to make him acting up less and behave while he was bored out of his mind. Fast forward to the adult life of this young child boy, perhaps it’s relatively unfair to limit his perception of the French fashion label like that in such a negative way based on the experience he had back in his childhood, he was way too young to understand how to appreciate, and see the beauty and artistry of French fashion yet! For example, “Who is Nina Ricci?” “What is her signature style?” “What did she create to make her namesake brand become such legendary?” and so on, these are the things that are worth digging deep into and discovering! As a result, to do this young child boy a favor decades later, it’s time to reset his memory, open his eyes, and understand more about what this historic French fashion brand is, especially when he claimed how much he is passionate about French fashion and history, and so he did.
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Founded by the Italian-born French fashion designer, Maria “Nina” Ricci, with her son, Robert, in Paris back in 1932. Born in Turin, Italy in 1883, the young Maria was gifted in fashion, she got a job as a seamstress when she was only 14, and later after settling in Paris, she joined the French fashion house named Raffin, and worked her way up there for about two decades. Maria married Florentine jeweler, Mr. Luigi Ricci, and gave birth to a son named Robert. During her career with Raffin, she learnt almost every aspect of how the fashion house works, from the creation of a piece of clothing, working with in-house seamstresses to even dealing with clients, which made her become a partner of the House of Raffin. After the passing of the owner of Raffin, he left Maria the business and its financial wealth; in her mind, she has been thinking of founding her very own fashion house, which leads the formation of Nina Ricci in 1932, along with her son. While Maria dedicated herself to creating refined, romantic, and feminine dresses and gowns for style-savvy and sophisticated clients, Robert focused on managing the business and finances of the fashion house. Without receiving any formal training in fashion, Maria gained her knowledge through her apprenticeship and her job, which led to a unique way of how she come up with a design by draping the fabric of her choice directly on the mannequin, and from there, she began her editing until the piece comes to fruition. To Maria, her idea of a dress that speaks to her aesthetic should be light-weight, flowy, elegant, and good for dancing, and her clothes did attract countless French actresses, aristocrats, and even demimondes which led to the prosperity of her brand and business. Throughout the 1930s, the brand expanded from merely a one-room atelier to three buildings with eleven floors each with the number of employees from initially 40 people to more than 400 people, making it one of the most significant fashion houses in Paris among her peers, and known for her high-quality and elegant clothes in a less hefty price tag compared with others such as Lanvin and Chanel. While Maria had a certain standard for her creation, in her personal life, she also had a certain standard for her style too! With her strong sensibility over luxurious, dreamy, meticulous, and elegant fashion and things throughout her life, she has mastered a great eye and applied this knowledge to herself when it comes to her fashion choices, with elegant and unique jewelry pieces that were designed by her late husband, she wore them to attend luxurious events and parties.
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After WWII, to rekindle the spirit of the high fashion industry, the status as the French fashion capital, also to revive the desire of women to appreciate the beauty of fashion, haute couturte, and l’art de vivre before the traumatic wartime, with the support of the then-President of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture and fashion designer, the late Mr. Lucien Lelong, the fashion house took part as one of the most significant fashion exhibition which held in the Louvre in 1945, which showcased 40 fashion designer’s work including some of the renowned fashion houses such as Grès and Balenciaga, with more than 145 mannequins dressing in the best design by these fashion houses. The exhibition was a huge success in Paris and later it was toured around in Europe before exhibiting in the America.
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Apart from the elegant womenswear, the Nina Ricci label did create menswear in the past, while without much information about exactly when their menswear started to develop, as far as I know, the aesthetic is right on the classic side in formal suits, jackets, dress shirts, even accessories such as necktie and small leather goods. There was a time that their menswear was labeled as “Nina Ricci Monsieur” back in a few decades ago that I didn’t pay much attention to, only until the younger generation French designer, Mr. Guillaume Henry, who previously as the Creative Director of another historic French fashion house, Carven, took the helm of the designing role of Nina Ricci back in 2015, which reignited me the interest about their menswear as I’d like to see how does it evolve with the design direction under Guillaume; while the aesthetic is still on the classic side, the silhouette and quality of the fabric looked much modern and premium looking (unlike those license products in the old times), even the label showed a much clean and luxurious appeal with only the name “Nina Ricci” in their menswear and even necktie. While it seems their menswear is no longer produced, it still manifests the house’s association with classic menswear, and their effort to offer the same kind of sophistication, Parisian high fashion chic, and elegance to those men who strived to look decent and elegant like a well-dressed and civilized Parisian man.
There are a couple of informative websites out there that recorded the history of the house of Nina Ricci, even the brief biography of Maria herself, while I tended to have something solid that I could physically hold by my hands, interestingly, I found a beautiful vintage book that was about this fashion house by coincident back in a couple of months ago. Published by Editions du Regard back in 1992, written by Ms. Marie France Pochna, a reputed author who is also an award-winning expert on style, fashion, and the luxury goods sector, this beautiful book not only recorded the history of Madame Ricci, her elegant fashion and some of the iconic pieces, but also the evolvement of the aesthetic after the passing of Maria by the succeeding designers included Mr. Jules-François Crahay (from 1959 to 1963), and subsequently, Mr. Gerard Pipart (from 1963 to 1998), their fashion pieces and drawings which interpreted the contemporary Nina Ricci style through those two designer’s eyes, as well as having a glimpse of the business life of Mr. Robert Ricci, and Mr. Gilles Fuchs, who was the son-in-law of Maria and took over the Nina Ricci house after Robert’s passing in 1988.
By far this is possibly the only book, and only available in French, that talks about this elegant French fashion house, with such precious photos and a comprehensive story that enables one to immerse into the world of Nina Ricci, this book is undoubtedly a beautiful copy to let one revisit the glamour and beauty of the bygone heydays of elegant Parisian high fashion, to make some of us marvel, and constantly look up and pursue the French elegance and style, to be inspired, and indulged in the fantasy of the old-world glamour that seemed so far away from the reality of now. This book has become such a rare and valuable copy which is pretty hard to find nowadays, its charm and rarity have attracted some of the tasteful vintage book collectors who are into vintage fashion, and interior designers to own a copy! And I am truly thankful, and cherish this remarkable copy in my hands now, even though it’s a second-hand one but is still preserved in such a good condition.
Besides the elegant fashion, the brand Nina Ricci is also famous for its exquisite perfume, which derives from the idea of her son, Mr. Robert Ricci, as he saw the opportunity for the brand to grow further, which resulted in the birth of the house’s very first perfume named “Coeur-Joie” in 1946, aligned with the elegance and romantic aesthetic to the fashion created by Maria. Robert worked with French perfumer, Ms. Germaine Cellier, to create this elegant and dreamy fragrance, contained in a hallow-center heart-shaped crystal bottle by Lalique; this perfume opens with citrus notes of Neroli and Bergamot, then it dries down in the flowy, romantic, and feminine floral notes including Iris, Violet, Jasmine, and Rose.
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Then in 1948, the brand launched another legendary perfume which is still known up to this day, and that is the iconic ‘L’Air du Temps’, this fragrance was co-designed by Robert and Mr. Marc Lalique, with the signature sand-blasted bottle stopper of two entwined doves that symbolized peace and love, with a twisted rib round-shaped flacon which imitates the floating airy fabric of a dress. Created by French perfumer Mr. Francis Fabron (who also created some other legendary perfumes included Balenciaga’s “Le Dix” (1947) and Givenchy’s “L’Interdit” (1957)), this floral fragrance opens with Carnation, Aldehydes, Rose and some citrus notes, in the middle the floral notes become richer in Gardenia, Jasmine, Cloves, Ylang-Ylang, and certain powdery airiness included Violet, Orris Root and Orchid, the fragrance then dries down with spicy woody notes included spices, Oakmoss, Sandalwood, Vetiver and Musk.
This iconic perfume exudes a certain intensity, elegance, and mature femininity in the sumptuous old-world style, it has vividly shaped the image in my head of the kind of woman who wore it when I was a young boy: a determined and mature woman who has expensive taste, who enjoy living a beautiful life large, surrounded herself with glamour, beauty, elegant fashion and luxury lifestyle, she has a certain standard for herself when it comes to style and the way of living, and she never settle for less nor letting anyone walk all over her, she could be either as gentle as a pussy cat, or as feisty and fierce as a tiger if necessary.
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Hilariously, this scent exactly reminds me of the scenario of the young boy who was being dragged to participate sale-hunt battlefield with his mother against other style-savvy bargain-hunting women on the ground floor’s luxury women’s department shop-in-shop inside the upscale Japanese department store, when he was bored out of his mind hiding under the hang-rack of expensive long dresses and coats, and then out of the blue, he was being dragged out by pulling his ear by his mother, then warned him on the spot to behave and stand still; talk about high fashion glamour and upbringing, this young boy has learnt it in a hard way.
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The iconic ‘L’Air du Temps’ perfume has appeared in different editions throughout decades, alongside other new fragrance developments of the brand such as the “Les Belles de Ricci” series (from 1996), the “Nina” series (from 2006), the “Ricci / Mademoiselle Ricci” series (from 2009), the “L’Extase” series (from 2015) and so on, the list can go on; but personally, my deepest impression, and one of my favorite among the rest of the other Nina Ricci fragrances, is the “Premier jour” Eau de parfum which launched in 2001, this floral fragrance was created by perfumers Ms. Sophie Labbe, Mr. Carlos Benaïm, and Mr. Rosendo Mateu.
Its innovative asymmetric cylinder-shaped bottle and the rose-gold-ish glossy packaging in minimalistic font appeal to me in the first place, it looks very modern, creative, and minimalistic in a very artistic yet elegant way, which sets it apart from the brand’s old-world bottle design that shakes its mature women, ‘tiger mom’ image in my head at the very least. The scent opens with pleasant floral notes including Sweet Pea and Mandarin Orange, then it evolves into other beautiful floral notes including Gardenia and Orchid, the fragrance then dries down in musky woody notes including Sandalwood, Musk, and Vanilla, the launch of this fragrance changed my perception about the Nina Ricci fragrance that I once knew, with such up-to-date, sophisticated and understated approach but still smells chic, modern and elegant, which makes it one of my favorite collectible fragrance from the house of Nina Ricci.
Of course, there are some others that I found pretty intriguing to collect as well, most of them have been discontinued, including “L’Air du Paradis” (2018), created by French master perfumer, Ms. Calice Becker, and “L’Air du Ciel” (2019), a unisex fragrance created by perfumers Ms. Natalie Gracia-Cetto and Ms. Louise Turner, while the bottle design of both perfumes were adapting the iconic design of “L’Air du temps”, those are pretty noteworthy as it allows me to see how the legendary “L’Air du temps’ evolves after decades later, from the impression of a mature, old-world glamour style in my head, to youthful, spirited and sometimes girly-coy femininity of a new-generation lady who obsessed with chic fashion through social media or TikTok, living most of their life online, doing their fashion shopping online, and talk more about sustainability than elegance and classic style, it somehow feels like seeing a woman’s age being reversed from her middle age to her youth.
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For men’s fragrance, the Nina Ricci brand did create a couple of fragrances for men, which included “Signoricci” (1965) and “Signoricci 2” (1975), sadly I didn’t have a chance to experience these discontinued fragrances personally, in case any of you out there did have one in your perfume collection, do share with us about your impression over these men’s perfume, and how does it make you feel its association with French elegance.
Nowadays, the Nina Ricci brand has been owned by the reputed Spanish perfume and beauty company, Puig, since 1998, while the production of the iconic “L’Air du temps” perfume is still ongoing up to this moment, the fashion side of the label has shaken up a bit with the arrival of the new young British-American fashion designer, Mr. Harris Reed, as the Creative Director of the brand since 2022, with his innovative and futuristic approach, adding the heritage of the house’s femininity and French elegance, let’s see how he’ll take this reputed French fashion house to the next level.
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While the physical boutique on 39 Avenue Montaigne in Paris no longer exists, I hope that someday we’ll be able to re-see the physical boutique once again, at least it enables me to recapture the beautiful legacy, the bygone glamour and French elegance that Madame Ricci has established, keeping me motivated to work on my own style through maintaining a sophisticated and consistent habit of dressing, and my passion about refined menswear despite how much the world and the men’s style has changed out there, and lastly, through the pursue of fashion and even perfume history, it helps to fuel my desire constantly about coming back to this French fashion capital for a visit from time to time, to be inspired, to be enriched by this knowledge, and live a life of my dream to be part of the French high fashion world, the culture of French art de vivre, and artistic legacy.