If those living in breezier parts of the world ever needed motivation to get their 10,000 steps in a day, Nina Ricci had the answer for pre-fall: a collection designed to be worn in the wind. For Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter, whose work is often submerged in aquatic themes, investigating the properties and possibilities of air was something of a departure. Actually, make that an ascent: tailoring and flou imbued with details meant to catch and contain the wind. “It’s that awkward moment when you’re off-balance,” Botter said on a video call from the Netherlands, explaining the sense of movement he and Herrebrugh had set out to capture within their clothes.
Rather than literally trying to freeze-frame the gestures of windswept fabric in garments, the Nina Ricci duo’s collection was a two-in-one transformation: clothes that looked one way until activated by wind and transformed into a different silhouette. “It’s not for sitting still. It’s for the modern woman who’s moving,” Herrebrugh said. The designers had investigated the performancewear and equipment native to extreme wind sports like kitesurfing and bungee jumping and merged these mechanisms and materials with the dress codes of urban daywear. They wanted to know: “How do they use air pockets to capture the air and slow you down? How do we use air to float and somehow slow down gravity?”
Their implementations were both techy and technical. The back of a wool blazer had been replaced with a ballooning panel that resembled a parachute. A trouser was slit from the top of the thigh down through the hem, allowing its open legs to billow in the wind and create volume in movement. Incisions were made to the trouser of a suit creating a gash-like effect when on the go, a technique repeated in the cape sleeves of its matching jacket, which Botter said was based on the framework of flying squirrels. You can’t fault the Nina Ricci designers for lacking a studious and wide-ranging approach to their work.
The issue with clothes that are activated by movement is, of course, that they have to work statically too. It wasn’t a concern for Botter and Herrebrugh, who said they had built mechanisms into their garments to make them transformable. The many slits of a dress, for instance—meant to float in the air—had been filled in with zippers allowing the wearer to zip it into a more body-conscious silhouette when indoors. An ode to Nina Ricci’s L’Air du Temps fragrance, the collection was a reflection of our times, said Herrebrugh: “Air is very changeable. We’re all questioning the air of our times: the right now, each of our personalities. Air is so linked to each and every one of us and so linked to life.”
