Haute couture house Nina Ricci and pioneer of the bodycon dress Hervé Léger have just announced new creative directors. Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh will be designing for Nina Ricci and Christian Juuls Nielsen is the new creative head for Hervé Léger, all of whom are reportedly already busy on their debut collections for their respective brands.
Botter and Herrebrugh have been in the fashion scene for a while now, having already worked together on their own brand Botter, which won the Grand Prize for Festival d’Hyères, the Dries van Noten Award, the BVBA32 Ann Demeulemeester Award, as well as a finalist spot in the 2018 LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers. Their appointment as creative directors for Nina Ricci is rather interesting as Botter’s and Nina Ricci’s design aesthetics seem to be polar opposites.
“Their universe expresses a passionate force, a sincerity and an extraordinary boldness deeply rooted in their time,” Nina Ricci’s general manager Charlotte Tassette said in a press release. “Mixed with the natural sweetness and poetry present in their vision, this unique creative spirit will give birth to a new Nina Ricci woman.”
The designers “aim to create a new spirit, a spirit of our times: effortless, sophisticated and strong” for the brand, they said in a statement. Botter and Herrebrugh’s debut collection will be for Pre-Fall 2019 and we can’t wait to see what they’ll bring to the label.
As for Nielsen, while he may not be a familiar name in the industry, he has worked with prestigious designers in the past. Coincidentally, his career started with Nina Ricci back in 2003 where he designed for more than three years, according to his LinkedIn profile. He then became a senior designer at Christian Dior, a design director at Oscar de la Renta and a consulting design director at J. Mendel. Nielsen has also been the creative director for Land of Distraction, a contemporary women’s wear label, since November 2016. It is assumed that he will work on both brands as their creative director.
According to WWD, Nielson has been working on his first collection for Hervé Léger this summer, with plans to present next month at New York Fashion Week.
