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.
