French Favorites: Guest Post for Kellie

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The lovely Kellie from The Yuppie Files, who is just as sweet as can be, is off living it up in beautiful Paris this week, and asked me to participate in a fun week of guest posting regarding my favorite French import.  Unfortunately I was unable to upload my post onto her blog via Wordpress, so I'm sharing it here today.  Hope you enjoy!

There are so many things that I love about Paris, it is awfully difficult to only choose one.  Museums galore, (j'adore the Louvre...) River cruises on the Seine, the beautifully visual and wonderfully tasty food (and wine...) and long walks, taking in all of the sights and sounds of the most romantic city in the world.  Of course I couldn't leave out the fashion scene!  Since I was fortunate to study fashion and live in Paris for a short time during college, I thought I'd share a very talented French designer with you.

Nina Ricci is established as one of the longest running Parisian couture houses. Unlike her peers, Elsa Schiaparelli and Chanel, Ricci's reputation does not rest on a revolutionary fashion statement. Instead, she was successful because she provided an understated, chic look for elegant and wealthy society women, always classic, yet intoxicatingly feminine.

When it came to designing clothes, Nina Ricci relied greatly on her feminine intuition. She worked directly on the model and designed by draping the actual fabric, which she felt gave her the answer to what the dress would become. Creating clothes was simply a matter of solving problems and in the 1930s she described several of them—she had to find an extra special, elegant detail that would render a dress a client's favorite and achieve a maximum ease and lightness that did not encumber the wearer when moving or dancing.

Much of the detailing in Nina Ricci clothing reflected the designer's ultra feminine approach, the flattering effects of gathers, tucks, and drapery and an attention to décolleté and figure-hugging details like fitting dresses below the waist. She was clever and original in her use of fabric, cutting plaids and tartans on the bias for evening dresses and a black silk border print fabric so the print was avidly displayed over the bust, leaving the rest of the dress to become a straight column of fabric.

Ricci had been a successful designer for other houses before she decided to open her own with her son Robert in 1932. At the age of 49, this could have been a risky venture but the gamble paid off as the company rapidly grew in size and stature during its first decade. By 1939 they occupied eleven floors in three buildings, a stark contrast to their humble beginnings in one room at 20 boulevard des Capucines, Paris.



Nina retired from the business in the early 1950s, leaving the field open to her son Robert who pursued his own ambitious plans for the house. An excellent businessman, Robert Ricci established many divisions and licensees for the Ricci name. A fragrance, Cœur de Joie, was introduced in 1945, followed by the now classic L'Air du Temps. Later such fragrances as Fleur de Fleurs, and Nina were successively marketed. Sunglasses alone were reported to be grossing $6 million in the late 1970s and by 1979 the house had become firmly established in the former Kodak Mansion, opposite the House of Dior on avenue Montaigne, Paris.

Peter Copping, who has been designing the Nina Ricci line for the last two years, has brought back Ricci's feminine and youthful fifties and sixties vibe to the fashion house with his Resort 2012 collection.  From Style.com, "Copping opened with a pink suit, the skirt pencil-slim and the jacket matador-short. The signature lingerie details (zigzag stitching, elastic band waist) were in full effect; this is a designer fully in command of his house's codes. And he's familiar enough with mid century designs to know that they weren't necessarily liberating, so he's cut an hourglass dress in a stretchy printed linen and added a little bit of extra room to the bodice of a strapless cocktail number so his girl can eat on her night on the town, not just sip."



I think that is just fabulous!  Oh, to dress in couture everyday, wouldn't it be divine?

 

Kellie, thank you again for inviting me to guest post on your lovely blog!  Hope you are having a marvelous time in Paris, we cannot wait to hear all about it!  Please do a little shopping for me :)

Á votre santé!

xoxo

Be sure to check out Kellie's blog to see Daphne's post Monday, Kori's post yesterday, and more surprise guest posts for the remainder of the week.

P.S. Has anyone seen "Midnight in Paris" yet?  I saw it this week with my MIL and SIL, and the views of the city....oh my, they were breathtaking!  What did you think?

(Images via; References via, via)