It’s his last collection for the label. It’s not his last collection for the label. Yesterday, WWD announced that Guillaume Henry was leaving Nina Ricci, frustrated by what he perceives as a lack of investment on the part of parent company Puig. Not long after, the Nina Ricci press office issued a rejoinder, refuting the news. This was not an auspicious set of events for today’s show, and the collection itself didn’t offer much in the way of further clarification. Nina Ricci is a house whose codes are femininity, romance, and lacy bits, and Henry is a designer who seems most interested in tailoring.
A pair of duffle coats in red and ice-blue looked dashing, and the season’s omnipresent cape silhouette made two appearances: one in black in what could’ve been wool and cashmere, and the other in bronze latex, of all things. He used low-key gray corduroy for both a trench and a jean jacket lined with white fluff, and there was a skirtsuit, the puffed-shoulder primness of which he undercut with a sheer top traced with two intersecting lines of rhinestones.
A contrarian streak ran through the boudoir-ish elements, which seemed well considered for “the times we’re living in.” Henry’s cone-bra slips were odd-fitting, intentionally so, and he crushed the silk pieces to create perma-wrinkles. Crinkly fabric notwithstanding, with its high, handkerchief neckline and thin red belt, model Kinga Rajzak’s white gown was subtle and elegant in a vaguely 1930s-ish way. If he’s back again next season, as the PR says he will be, that long dress would be a good jumping-off point.
