Nina Ricci Closes Historic Paris Flagship Boutique
● Owned by Spanish fragrance and fashion group Puig, the brand is pivoting to a digital-first strategy in line with its recent price repositioning.
PARIS — Nina Ricci is closing its historic flagship boutique in Paris as it pivots to a digital-first strategy, in line with its recent price repositioning.
The store, opened in 1979, will be taken over by Paco Rabanne which, like Nina Ricci, belongs to Spanish fragrance and fashion group Puig, the parent company of brands including Carolina Herrera, Jean Paul Gaultier, Dries Van Noten and Penhaligon’s.
“Given a very unstable worldwide situation and ‘new normal’ stakes, we made the bold choice to accelerate Nina Ricci’s new vision processes, which will be all about one brand, digital first and approachable luxury,” Ricci said in a statement issued to WWD.
“This naturally included the closing of our brick-and-mortar flagship for the coming opening of a digital flagship. And, of course, we are delighted to have Paco Rabanne, it remains in the family,” it added.
The boutique at 39 Avenue Montaigne, across the street from Dior, is closed and its windows are covered with stickers bearing the Paco Rabanne logo.
No date has been set for its reopening, as France remains under lockdown in a bid to contain the coronavirus pandemic, meaning all nonessential stores are closed. Paco Rabanne has two boutiques in Paris, on Rue Cambon and Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.
Although Ricci executives have yet to lay out the new strategy, the brand’s creative directors, Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter, said it was implemented for fall 2021. The designers cut the number of looks they presented by 30 percent. Prices have been divided by 2.5 to make the collection more accessible.
“It’s almost like how Nina Ricci started: it was really democratic. And if I look at our generation now, I want to see them also wear the garments,” Botter told WWD in March.
Winners of the Première Vision Grand Prize at the Hyères International Festival of Fashion and Photography in 2018, Herrebrugh and Botter were appointed as artistic directors of Nina Ricci the same year.
The brand, founded in 1932 and known for its bestselling fragrances, including L’Air du Temps, is expected to launch an e- commerce site this fall. Ricci is carried by around 80 retailers worldwide, including Le Bon Marché, Printemps, Bergdorf Goodman,
Neiman Marcus, Isetan, Joyce and Lane Crawford. It is also sold online via Net- aporter, Farfetch and Ssense.