Nina Ricci: A Parisian Story of Femininity Woven by a Mother and Son

“A perfume must be a work of art. And the vessel that holds it must be a masterpiece.”
— Robert Ricci

Essential Information
The Founder and the Origins of the Brand
The Brand’s Commitments
The Fragrance Collection
1. The Classical Era (1946–1980s)
2. New Directions under Puig (Since 1998)
As an Aside…

Essential Information

Founded: 1932
Founders: Maria Adelaide Nielli (known as Nina Ricci) / her son Robert Ricci
Headquarters: Paris, France
Official website: https://www.ninaricci.com
Current parent company: Spain’s Puig Group (since 1998)

The Founder and the Origins of the Brand

A Shoemaker’s Daughter Heads to Paris

Nina Ricci’s real name was Maria Adelaide Nielli. Born in Turin in northern Italy in 1883, she was one of five children. Her father was a shoemaker, and the family eventually moved to Monte Carlo, but his untimely death transformed their lives. The family scattered, and Nina headed to Paris with her mother and sisters.

At just 14, Nina found work as a seamstress in Paris. Her distinctive approach of creating shapes by feeling the fabric in her hands rather than drawing sketches may have begun around this time. She honed her skills throughout her teens and eventually began to distinguish herself in the Paris fashion world.

A chance encounter on a bus became a turning point in Nina’s life. She met Luigi Ricci, the son of a jeweler from Florence, and they soon married. This was how she acquired the name “Nina Ricci.” “Nina” was a nickname she had been called since childhood, an affectionate name that stayed with her throughout her life, eclipsing her given name. She gave birth to her son Robert at 23, but lost her husband at 27 and subsequently raised Robert on her own. This bond between mother and son would later become the driving force behind a world-renowned fashion house.

The Raffin Years: Around Two Decades of Apprenticeship

In 1908, Nina joined a Paris dressmaking establishment called the House of Raffin. She would spend around 20 years there. Raffin was one of at least 80 couture salons in Paris at the time, and was by no means a glamorous presence. Yet it was here that Nina built a completely autonomous atelier division of her own. With her own craftspeople, seamstresses, and regular clients, she also developed a successful sideline selling patterns to provincial dressmakers.

A defining feature of her design process was that she did not use sketches. Instead, she placed fabric directly onto a torso (a dressmaker’s mannequin), shaping it while using her hands to assess its drape (the curves of falling fabric) and silhouette. This approach brought a level of technical refinement that earned her acclaim alongside her contemporary Madame Grès (Alix Grès).

At 49, Her Son Persuades Her to Strike Out on Her Own

The head of Raffin died in 1929. By 1932, when Nina became independent, she was 49. She had accumulated a reasonable amount of savings and was at an age when retirement would not have been surprising. But her son Robert, who had honed his business acumen in advertising, persuaded her to change her mind.

There was one condition: Nina would have complete creative control, while Robert would take charge of all business management. They reached an agreement and opened a small atelier and salon on Rue des Capucines in Paris.

This marked the birth of the House of Nina Ricci.

The official website describes the founding as a house established in Paris “by her son Robert as a gift for his mother.” Joint management by mother and son was extremely unusual in the couture world of the time. Without drawing a single sketch, Nina consistently created her designs by wrapping fabric around a dressmaker’s mannequin.

“To make clothes that envelop women elegantly and gently”: people who knew her in those days describe this as Nina’s unwavering aesthetic.

It should be noted, however, that the source of these words could not be confirmed in primary material such as an official interview.

Rapid Expansion and the Heights of Haute Couture

In just seven years, from 1932 to 1939, the house’s workforce grew from 40 to 450. Rather than the avant-garde elegance of Chanel or Lanvin, Nina Ricci’s style embodied the “sophisticated practicality” sought by women of France’s upper-middle class, the haute bourgeoisie. This difference in clientele meant that Cecil Beaton and American Vogue did not actively champion her, but it also reflected the fact that her intended audience had been different from the outset.

She maintained the highest standards of tailoring while keeping prices around one-third lower than those of Lanvin and Chanel. She also took the forward-looking step of presenting an “intermediary collection” for younger women twice a year. This could be described as a precursor to prêt-à-porter, or ready-to-wear.

Nina continued to create throughout the Second World War. In 1945, after the war, Robert organized an exhibition intended both to revive haute couture and to raise money for war relief. At least 40 leading Paris couturiers participated, with at least 200 dolls wearing the latest collections, including designs by Balenciaga and Madame Grès, displayed at the Museum of Decorative Arts in the Louvre Palace. The event was a major success and toured Europe and the United States.

The Birth of the Perfume Business and a Legendary Fragrance

In the 1930s, Robert was convinced that “perfume is essential if this house is to grow further and increase its presence overseas.” He wound down his advertising business in 1937, and in 1941, after receiving half of the company’s capital from Nina, formally established the perfume division.

In 1946, the house’s first perfume, Coeur Joie, was born. Its perfumer was Germaine Cellier of Roure, counted among the greatest noses (perfumers) of the twentieth century. The bottle was heart-shaped Lalique crystal, and the packaging illustrations were by Christian Bérard. Marc Lalique, a childhood friend of Robert’s, undertook the bottle’s production because of this close personal relationship. Although it got off to a slow start, the fragrance eventually established a presence in the international perfume market.

Then, in 1948, came the perfume that would inscribe the Nina Ricci name on the world: L’Air du Temps.

The Brand’s Commitments

“Perfume Is a Work of Art”: Robert’s Philosophy

If Nina Ricci’s perfume philosophy could be summed up in a few words, it is encapsulated in Robert’s statement.

“A perfume must be a work of art. And the vessel that holds it must be a masterpiece.”
— Robert Ricci

For Robert, perfume was not simply a product. In French, L’Air du Temps means “the air of the times” or “the spirit of the age,” and he literally sought to capture an era in scent. The official website also attributes the following words to him.

“I work for people whose sensibility is in tune with my own.”
— Robert Ricci

This philosophy extended beyond the fragrance to the design of its bottle. Nina Ricci perfumes were consistently accompanied by collaborations with crystal sculptors and celebrated designers.

The Dove Bottle: The Birth and Evolution of L’Air du Temps

Created by perfumer Francis Fabron of Roure, L’Air du Temps is a floral-spicy masterpiece that captures the sense of liberation and the yearning for peace after the Second World War. Built around jasmine, rose, and carnation, with at least 30 ingredients woven together, it is described on the official website as “the first spicy floral in perfume history.”

Robert himself described the scent in these words.

“L’Air du Temps is a small olfactory miracle.”
— Robert Ricci

The bottle’s design also underwent a remarkable evolution. The original 1948 bottle, by sculptor Jean Rebull, had “a sun shape topped by a single dove.” Three years later, in 1951, Robert’s childhood friend Marc Lalique created a crystal flacon with a stopper featuring “two intertwined doves.” The loving doves became a symbol of postwar “reconciliation and love” and have remained an enduring icon of Nina Ricci ever since.

In 2000, this bottle was named “Perfume Bottle of the Century.”

The Bond with Lalique and Collaborations with Artists

Behind the repeated choice of Lalique for Nina Ricci perfume bottles was a personal connection that went beyond a business relationship. Robert and Marc Lalique had been friends since childhood, and it is also said that the Lalique family produced bottles exclusively for the Ricci family.

The L’Air du Temps bottle has also been reinterpreted by later artists. In 2010, Philippe Starck designed a new flacon “stripped down to the minimum,” attracting attention with an approach that retained only the essence of the two doves. Starck himself has said, “I am a man in search of the minimum.”

The House’s Symbolic Motifs

According to the official website, Nina Ricci is a brand that speaks of women through symbolic motifs: “the Three Graces, doves, apples, and flowers.” These symbols shape the visual identity of the entire brand, not just its perfumes.

The Fragrance Collection

The Classical Era (1946–1980s)

Under Robert’s curatorial direction, Nina Ricci’s perfume history consistently pursued “feminine grace and romance.” Some of its representative creations follow.

Coeur Joie (1946)
The house’s first perfume. Its name means “a heart filled with joy,” and perfumer Germaine Cellier delicately combined citrus and floral notes. Housed in heart-shaped Lalique crystal, it symbolizes the atmosphere of a liberated Paris after the war.

L’Air du Temps (1948)
The masterpiece that made Nina Ricci a global brand. A classic of French perfumery mentioned alongside Chanel N°5 and Guerlain’s Shalimar, it remains at the heart of the collection today.

Farouche (1974)
Meaning “unsociable” or “wild,” Farouche is a floral chypre, an unusual direction for Nina Ricci (chypre is a complex fragrance family using ingredients such as oakmoss and labdanum). It is also known for perfume critic Michael Edwards’s assessment of it as “one of the greatest perfumes of all time.”

Nina (1987)
A floral-aldehydic perfume created by Robert as a tribute to his late mother. Composed by perfumer Christian Vacchiano, it deliberately expressed a delicate femininity in the 1980s, when bold scents such as Poison and Obsession dominated. Robert died in 1988, making this one of his final perfume creations.

New Directions under Puig (Since 1998)

In 1998, the house was acquired by Spain’s beauty and fashion conglomerate Puig Group. Puig had already owned Paco Rabanne and had been expanding its share of the global prestige fragrance market.

Premier Jour (2001)
Meaning “first day,” Premier Jour is a floral perfume by perfumers Sophie Labbé and Carlos Benaïm. Mandarin, sweet pea, gardenia, and orchid are layered together, finishing with musk and sandalwood. The transparent cylindrical bottle, designed by Fabien Baron, symbolized the design renewal then taking place at Nina Ricci.

Nina (2006)
Reborn as a fragrance distinct from the Nina of 1987, the 2006 version is a fruity floral inspired by toffee apples and the temptation of forbidden fruit. Its raspberry-colored, apple-shaped bottle was inspired by the fairy tales of Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm and has since become an icon of the brand. As of 2026, it remains in the current collection, carrying forward the modern lineage of perfumes bearing the Nina name. It is now vegan, with 90% of its ingredients of natural origin.

As an Aside…

Andy Warhol and Nina Ricci
Several publications state that Nina Ricci once commissioned Andy Warhol to design window displays. Warhol is known to have created window displays at various locations in the 1950s, including the luxury New York department store Bonwit Teller, but the specific timing and details of his work with Nina Ricci could not be confirmed through official primary information.

Her Great-Grandson Romano Ricci’s Juliette Has A Gun
Nina Ricci’s great-grandson Romano Ricci launched the niche fragrance brand Juliette Has A Gun in 2006. Romano has said, “My grandfather Robert taught me all the rules of perfumery. And how to break them,” showing how the Ricci family’s passion for perfume has passed from one generation to another. His words, “My first olfactory memory is L’Air du Temps. It was the scent that drifted throughout the family factory,” also reveal how deeply the brand’s fragrance was embedded in the family’s life.

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