Nina Ricci

Founded in 1932, Nina Ricci has remained one of the most prestigious fashion houses in all of France. Madame Ricci established it along with her son, Robert, when they decided that setting up their own haute couture house was a lucrative business idea with many opportunities. Madame Ricci took the role of a fashion designer, while Robert was the one who handled the business, including the finances.

They started working with fabrics, creating their own lines of feminine designs. After a few months from inception, their business grew under the name Nina Ricci, already known to the fashion industry as one of the best producers of romantic and refined fashion pieces.

The success of Nina Ricci can be attributed much to Robert’s effort. In 1945, he came up with the idea of exhibiting the best dresses ever made. With the help of the President of the Chamber, Lucien Lelong, Robert was able to dress more than a hundred mannequins from forty prestigious couturiers in the whole of France.

Madame Gres and Balenciaga were even included in that exhibition held in Louvre, Paris. This fashion showcase is what allowed the designs of Nina Ricci to reach other areas of Europe and even the United States.

After a few years of success, Nina Ricci began offering a line of luxury perfumes for the affluent. Robert was the creator of these fragrances, and he created this new line of products just to cope with the company’s expansion.

The first perfume made by him was named Coeur Jolie, and this was followed by another, the L’Air du Temps. This latter fragrance is the one considered by most consumers as the most delicate. It even remains as Nina Ricci’s top seller until these days.

The Coeur Jolie, on its first release, was valued not just for the delicate scent it emits but also for the great packaging that Nina Ricci has made. The perfume was contained in a crystal bottle that is frosted. The bottle was crafted by Marc Lalique and it features illustrations made by Christian BZrard.

This fragrance is made of sweet smelling flowers, the one that sets Nina Ricci apart from the rest of France’s creative perfumery. The L’Air du Temps, which means “mood of the times”, became France’s most classic perfume product ever created.

In 1959, new designs emerged then bringing Nina Ricci to new heights. The house acquired an international honor mainly for the success of one of its new collections, the Jules-Francois Crahay. This line was consolidated a few years after by GZrard Pipart, who took the new management over the haute couture studio in the year 1964. That same year, the L’Air du Temps was distributed and marketed not just in the whole Paris, but also in the major markets in the United States and Japan.

The perfumes of Nina Ricci continued to develop even after the death of Madame Ricci in 1970. The company was then considered as the leading exporter of fragrances in France. The production was even increased with the establishment of Ury Perfume Production Center where the known Farouche perfume was formulated. The company made several other fragrances, and this production is expected to increase with more and more people and technologies now being used for better results.