Nina Ricci (Nina Ricci)

"I worked like hell, day and night" - she said, grandchildren, and it was exaggeration. The daughter of a shoemaker Marie Adeland Neli that the world learned the name of Nina Ricci, fate, and really did not spoil. Her father, hoping to find clients among fashionable ladies vacationing in the Cote d'Azur, he moved with his family from Turin in Monte Carlo, but he soon died, leaving his wife without a penny. The twelve-Marie received a student in a sewing workshop and ... makes the first step to a future profession: enchanting hats of her own invention come from local fashionistas like hot cakes. At fourteen, she along with her mother and older sister works in a haberdashery shop, and the evening continues to learn sewing craft. She was waiting for work in the fashion house, where newcomers allowed to iron, sew on buttons and run "errands"; going through all this, it could become the youngest milliner, then - the middle and, finally, after many years - first. Hundreds of girls were on the dreary path, but Marie did not get lost in the crowd. By the age of eighteen, she received first place milliner, and a couple of years has hired seamstresses, who sewed clothes for her own sketches. Once at the bus stop I saw a girl florist Louis Ricci - so Marie Neli become Nina Ricci.

Alas, their marriage was not happy, and soon Nina is left alone. She continues to work tirelessly and steadily climbs the stairs leading to the world of High Fashion. Nobody knows what it is worth challenging - because in her arms was a small son, Robert.
In the 20's Nina Ricci goes to the House Ruffin, ten years later became its co-owner and not too worried about his future, when the House had to close. At its forty-nine years, she is rich, independent, and can finally afford to rest from the endless race for the vertical. She was determined to retire and would fulfill its intention, if not for Robert.

Son managed to convince Nina Ricci open house Haute Couture under his own name. In crisis circumstances venture seemed insane, but nonetheless in 1932 to house number 20 on the street sign appeared Capuchins: NINA RICCI.


The first shows the duo brought the family good luck. Nina Ricci knew very well the tastes of its customers - the bourgeois, preferring the quality of extravagance. Suit, "small" dress, dress jacket - is the basis of her first collections. The secret lay in a cut, add the perfection and moderate prices (three times lower than that of "Lanvin" and "Poirot") - and it becomes clear why the Nina Ricci soon puts half Paris. Its commercial flair will lead the family company in the front ranks of French clothing manufacturers. But the global success will come only after the war, when Robert Ricci launched its first perfume "Coeur-Joie". Two years later, "L'air du Temps" bring home NINA RICCI not only fame but also the enormous profits. The popularity of this magical fragrance, which, as legend has it, Robert has created for the woman he loved, not weaker with age: every five seconds someone buys a bottle of "Lair du Temps". Probably, they are really blew the charm of the time when the two artists created their masterpieces: his mother, with its inherent restraint and impeccable taste, and her son, the youthful, passionate lover of life.