Much-feted design duo Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh will be taking up the roles of artistic directors at the storied Parisian maison of Nina Ricci. Major! Recent Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp Fashion Department alum Botter has been steadily carving out a way together with partner Lisi Herrebrugh - who graduated from the Amsterdam Fashion Institute - to make a mark on this most fickle of industries. The fashion world took note however: their young, Antwerp-based label BOTTER was long-and-shortlisted for the biggest awards available, from the H&M Design Award to the über-prestigious LVMH prize. Earlier this year, Botter & Herrebrugh took home the Grand Prix at the Hyères International Festival of Fashion and Photography and now they're cementing their obvious talent by doing what many young fashion students dream of: taking the artistic reins at a historic fashion house. Their first collection for Nina Ricci will debut during the Pre-Fall 2019 season and the first official show will be held during AW19 fashion week.
We've been rooting for BOTTER from the get-go so it's exciting to think about what their updated vision for Nina Ricci will entail. How exactly will they merge their signature gender-free, highly diverse, political and culturally-inspired aesthetic (their standout 'Fish or Fight' SS19 collection is an ode to Curaçao and a social commentary on pollution and mass-consumption) with the poetic couture-esque creations of a Franco-Italian house founded in 1932? What's certain is that after the three and a half-year tenure of ex-Carven's Guillaume Henry, the house of Nina Ricci is in need of another big gust of life - like the one master Olivier Theyskens created before he left his position there in 2009.
Puig, the brand's Spanish owner group which recently bought a majority stake in Dries Van Noten, has noted the pair will start immediately. President José Manuel Albesa has already dubbed the duo's first designs as a 'revolution' and shares Puig was looking for a 'contemporary, raw edge'. Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh told WWD they are looking to create a new soul for Nina Ricci, one that's contemporary, refined, simple and strong but positive too. They are experts at grasping 'l'air du temps' so this sounds nothing but highly captivating. Roll on, pre-fall.
Header image: (c) Sean Murray
