Nina Ricci Fall 2007: Why Olivier Theyskens’s Debut at the French Fashion House Feels So Right Again
On March 3, 2007, a 75-year-old Paris fashion house experienced its very own youthquake. It was on that day that 30-year-old Olivier Theyskens presented his first collection for Nina Ricci as creative director. The Belgian designer had recently exited Rochas, which he resurrected more or less from obscurity, and expectations were high that he would revive this sleepy luxury label, too.
He did so with subversive nods to streetwear and an edgy, undone sort of glamour. There were draped blousons and matching pencil skirts, asymmetrical biker jackets thrown over sheer tanks, slinky slip dresses, and thousands of delicate feather embellishments that spoke to the label’s trademark ethereality. The gowns brought the drama, with their spiraling silhouettes and raw, floaty edges. Gone were the days of ladylike propriety: With Theyskens at the helm, the Nina Ricci romance came with bite.
How fitting for today? We’re living in a fashion moment where sexy undergarments are surfacing as day wear, one in which couture-like, handmade details are turning on a generation that values timelessness and the unique. Theyskens’s fall 2007 collection for Nina Ricci spoke to a new audience that was interested in dressing “cooler [and] more modern, not naive or whimsical,” as he told Style.com. Similarly, today’s young women are looking for strength and softness when it comes to modes of sartorial expression. Theyskens’s inaugural Nina Ricci outing provided a new uniform for marching seductively into the future.
Here’s a look back at Theyskens’s Nina Ricci debut.
Originally Appeared on Vogue
