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

Contents

Essential Information
The Founder and the Origins of the Brand
The Brand’s Commitments
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.

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.

Nina Ricci’s fragrances have three principal lines: L’Air du Temps, carrying the hopes of the postwar years; Nina, born of toffee apples and the temptation of forbidden fruit; and Vénus de Nina Ricci, which turns mythology towards self-love. All three work with flowers, but each begins differently, from the spice of carnation to the sweetness of fruit and confectionery or the radiance of magnolia.

L’Air du Temps

Created in 1948, L’Air du Temps grew out of the sense of liberation after the Second World War and the desire for peace, love and freedom. Francis Fabron placed the spice of carnation within a soft floral bouquet. He recalled imagining a spicy floral perfume he would want to smell on the shoulder of a woman he loved.

The current Eau de Toilette opens with carnation and gardenia, followed by rose and jasmine, sandalwood and iris. Carnation’s clove-like scent gives the bouquet definition, with woods and iris supporting it. An Eau de Parfum also belongs to the line. Although the Eau de Toilette retains its olfactory structure, its formula has been adjusted over time in response to changing regulations.

The bottle with two intertwined doves did not appear at the fragrance’s birth. After the initial vessel of 1948, Marc Lalique created the crystal bottle crowned with two doves in 1951. Symbols of peace, the birds gave physical form to the postwar hopes carried by the fragrance.

A limited creation bearing the same name is White Orchid Edition. Louise Turner combined a bouquet of orchid and jasmine with watery and salty accords, vanilla and vetiver. An accord is a group of fragrance materials composed to create a particular olfactory impression. In place of carnation’s spice, rich flowers meet a mineral-like freshness.

Turner sought a femininity without boundaries, giving orchid a salty freshness and a woody finish. Presented as a fragrance to be worn beyond gender divisions, it comes in an all-white version of the dove bottle. This is an amber-floral composition, distinct from a decorative edition that simply places the old scent in a white bottle.

Nina

The Nina Eau de Toilette of 2006 is a different creation from the perfume of the same name released in 1987. Its starting point was the toffee apple and the temptation of forbidden fruit. Olivier Cresp combined candied apple with lemon, gardenia and cedarwood, shaping its confectionery sweetness through tart citrus, flowers and wood.

The current notes are lemon and lime, gardenia and toffee apple, cedarwood and white musk. Its lemon oil uses Italian fruit excluded from food retail because of its shape or size. The current formula is described as 90% ingredients of natural origin; that figure does not describe the formula at its launch in 2006.

The apple bottle has an earlier predecessor: Fille d’Ève from 1952. Nina reinterpreted that apple shape for a new era. Seasonal variations continue to dress the bottle differently. Silky Snow has a glossy cream-coloured apple tied with a ribbon and sparkling ornament, while its scent description follows the composition of the original Eau de Toilette.

Nina’s variations develop different kinds of sweetness and different combinations of flowers and woods around them. In Nina Le Parfum, Cresp and Ilias Ermenidis use three natural apple extracts, a white bouquet of gardenia, orange blossom and tuberose, and a base of amberwood and vanilla. They sought to capture the temptation of forbidden fruit and give it body through warm woods. Despite the name Le Parfum, its stated concentration is eau de parfum.

Nina Rouge carries the tartness of raspberry and citron into gardenia and ginger flower, then vanilla and caramel. Nina Rouge Crush is a cherry-led eau de parfum. Cresp, Marie Salamagne and Ane Ayo combine cherry and raspberry with rose, gardenia, vanilla and cedar. Its theme is the exhilaration of having a crush, whether on a person or on something that captures one’s imagination.

Created for Nina’s twentieth anniversary, Nina Eau de Parfum shifts the focus to pistachio. Cresp and Sophie Labbé combine bergamot and pear, pistachio and gardenia, vanilla and sandalwood to create a creamy texture. The apple bottle shades from red to pink, while the anniversary packaging conceals motifs of the Garden of Eden and Paris by Safia Ouares.

Vénus de Nina Ricci

Introduced in 2024, Vénus de Nina Ricci connects the goddess of love and beauty with loving oneself. It carries forward Robert’s interest in mythology while turning attention towards recognising and cherishing one’s own existence, embodied in the figure of a modern goddess. It marks another chapter for the house after L’Air du Temps in 1948 and Nina in 2006.

The first Eau de Parfum was composed by Alexandra Monet, Nathalie Lorson and Olivier Cresp around magnolia. Monet likened working with this jewel-like flower to the craft of a goldsmith.

Mandarin and magnolia leaves open the floral chypre, leading into magnolia and jasmine, patchouli and vanilla. The magnolia uses a fractionated material obtained through a distinctive extraction process in Grasse. Bringing out the flower’s bright facets is the work Monet compared to goldsmithing. An enveloping character described as white patchouli meets the sweetness of vanilla.

The bottle also draws on jewellery. Two gold-finished shells flank amber-coloured glass, and the glossy black cap recalls a pearl. Art Deco design meets the sculptural perfume-bottle tradition associated with Lalique. The shells are cold-forged aluminium, individually given a brushed finish by hand, details described by EGISA, the company involved in making the outer packaging. The combination of shell and glass continues Robert’s commitment to the vessel as well as the fragrance it holds.

In Eau de Parfum Intense, the same three perfumers heighten the contrast between light and dark. Blackcurrant liqueur and mandarin meet tiare, jasmine and magnolia, with patchouli, benzoin and vanilla adding warmth. Where the first creation centres on magnolia, this version brings tiare and amber-toned patchouli to the fore.

Eau de Parfum Florale combines pineapple and mandarin, orange blossom and magnolia, moss and vanilla. Inspired by summer sunlight, it adds juicy fruit to the brightness of flowers. Its fruity-floral direction differs from the resins and warm woods of Intense.

Édition Or Nacrée, by contrast, is a collector’s edition for Mother’s Day. It carries forward the Eau de Parfum’s magnolia, patchouli and vanilla, presenting them through the theme of a bouquet for a mother.

Earlier Creations

Nina Ricci’s perfume history extends beyond its three current lines. Coeur Joie, released in 1946, was the house’s first fragrance. Germaine Cellier’s floral-aldehydic composition was housed in a heart-shaped bottle by Marc Lalique. The combination of perfumery and sculpted glass began before L’Air du Temps.

Farouche, created by Michel Hy in 1974, is represented by a floral-aldehydic extrait. Nina from 1987 is also floral-aldehydic, composed by Christian Vacchiano. Robert dedicated it to his mother. It must be distinguished by its date and composition from the later toffee-apple Nina.

Premier Jour followed in 2001, after the house joined Puig in 1998. Meaning first day, the fragrance was composed by Sophie Labbé and Carlos Benaïm. Mandarin, sweet pea, gardenia and orchid meet a sweetness suggesting sugar-coated almonds, followed by musk and sandalwood. Fabien Baron’s bottle consists of two offset cylinders with the soft surface of frosted glass.

Benaïm remembers the project as the occasion on which he came to know Labbé and a turning point as Nina Ricci began moving forward again after the acquisition. Both perfumers were at IFF, working to create a fragrance worthy of that new beginning.

For Labbé, the theme also touched her own life. She recalls being pregnant with her second daughter and wanting to build the scent around sugar-coated almonds. The contrast between their softness as they melt in the mouth and their hardness against the teeth suited the idea of a beginning. She did not yet know the perfume’s name, but later recognised how much it meant to her personally.

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.

References