Has Nina Ricci gone sporty? That's putting it a bit simply, but Guillaume Henry did have something new in mind for Spring. It had to do with the more casual attitude of clothes that have their origins on the playing field, and in street- and workwear. The starting point for the collection was a soccer jersey, the kind with subtle intarsia stripes. He reworked those stripes countless ways, on day and evening pieces, and in tone-on-tone and high-contrast variations. That jersey morphed into skin-baring lace tanks, slinky sequined tops, and stretchy knit dresses with cut-outs here-and-there, among other things. If there were too many stripes by the end, and not enough variation, they nonetheless counted among the shows's best pieces, especially those clingy knit dresses and a black-and-white striped blouson dress in silk taffeta modeled with a windbreaker.
Of course, it wasn't all elevated riffs on soccer jerseys. There was still plenty Avenue Montaigne in the mix, be that in the form of a checked trench with raised seams, or a leather one in a dark shade of plum. The color palette was fruity: shades of cassis, raspberry, and prune mingled with that plum. In their midst, a bright red drawstring-waist silk tank dress stood out. Henry’s tailoring conjured vague ’80s memories. What signaled the era weren’t shoulder pads, but the high waistlines of cargo pants and the slick fabrics. Nina Ricci is a label known for its boudoir-y sensibility; Henry mostly took a pass on overt sex appeal, but clients looking for a fun night out should consider a velvet pantsuit in those shaved stripes.
