NINA RICCI WE felt bereft when the Rochas fashion label was closed down last year leaving 30-year-old Olivier Theyskens at the prime of his career but with nothing to do - even Anna Wintour publicly paid tribute to him. His arrival at Nina Ricci was, therefore, celebrated with relief as well as adulation - and Ricci is already reaping the benefits with his debut pre-fall collection already having taken sales up by 62 per cent year-on-year. With his long, glossy hair and elfin features it seems right that Theyskens' imagination should translate as romantically as it does. The end of the tent in the Jardin des Tuileries was open with a smoke machine behind the trees, letting us think we'd stepped into Narnia by mistake. The show began with Ophelias in long jersey dresses with single ostrich-stranded hair extensions that increased their ethereal nature. Ghostly grey and white dresses helter-skeltered around their bodies in the lightest silk with unfinished hems, while more hardy choices comprised one scallop-hemmed mohair baby doll, Seventies-style slouchy wool trouser suits and a a white fur coat so fluffy it could have hatched minutes ago. The dresses were strictly model figures only but they were mesmerising all the same - especially when cobweb light degradé versions went from white to neon yellow and the last run of black, white and grey had grown huge fungal curls of stiff chiffon – this really was an enchanted forest. There is a sense of reality in Theyskens' dream though and, to prove it (and keep those sales skyward), he interspersed the collection with black silk trouser suits – perfect if his Hollywood muse Reese Witherspoon feels like a change on the red carpet – bomber jackets, skinny jeans, vests of crisp silk or sheer, nipple-revealing cashmere and one lovely nobbley wool cape. Feathered knits and cobweb chiffon skirts gave the moment a couture feel – though we've seen far too many impossible-to-walk-in shoes this season – and Theyskens is back where he belongs: in the limelight. (March 4 2007, AM)
Dolly Jones
Looking great! Very Iceland! Which always gets me to Björk.
That's optimistic.
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