Now comfortably two years into their roles as creative directors at Nina Ricci, Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh offer a collection fusing activewear and influences from the brand’s extravagant presentations in the 80s and 90s. Taking key details and silhouettes from these sometimes disparate elements - the sleek turtlenecks equally as impactful in layering with shift dresses that are *just* the right kind of oversized, dramatic skirts that button up the side but never going so low that it would irritatingly snag on a boot. The short film opens with a soundtrack reminding me of LFO at a club at about 2.30 in the morning - satisfying and energetic enough to keep you going until the water runs out at 5, taking key techno elements and building it with a house attitude. Making an effort to capture that warped reality that can exist when taking in the details and colour of an ensemble, refracted with the Guy Ritchie style locked camera movement and time now existing with new rules that we do not quite understand yet with the pandemic. Models watching themselves walk in an empty room lined with cobalt blue chairs and deliberately making undeniable eye contact with the camera - it really captured that intense atmosphere and the excitement of fashion shows ‘in person’. A quick disclaimer - the hairy shoes on most of the models is just not my taste. Also for a collection that makes such an effort to be wearable, these shoes look increasingly difficult to clean. Serving up an acid tinged colour palette that is both stark and adaptable for the everyday wear this collection is made for, mixing a base of muted pastels with acrid and electric cobalts, yellows, muddled purples and plasticky reds, the focus on adaptability in a real and tactile sense is purposefully clashing with the smooth and tailored lines from femininities past hinting to the cocoon that we are having to form in multiple ways. My favourite pieces have to be the endlessly wearable purple coordinated set that seems to be custom made for trying to get into Berghain and the acid yellow reconstructed poncho that offers the right level of brazen couture structure that would be welcome in any publication.
