Who was Nina Ricci pictured in the photo?

Maria Nina Ricci was a French fashion designer of Italian origin.

Maria Nielli was born in Turin, Italy on 14 January, 1883. She moved to Florence, Italy with her family at age 5 and then to France in 1895 at age 12. She was nicknamed Nina. At the age of 13, she began an apprenticeship at a dressmaker’s. She continued to pursue her love of fashion throughout her teenage years becoming the head of the salon at age 18, and chief designer at 22. She married an Italian jeweler and composer Luigi Ricci in 1904, thus becoming Maria Ricci. They had a child named Robert. In 1908 Nina joined the house of Raffin as a designer and remained there for 20 years. She became Raffin’s partner, and then moved on to create her own design house in 1932.

The house of Nina Ricci was founded by Maria Ricci in Paris in 1932, later helped by her son Robert. The House of Nina Ricci grew rapidly throughout the thirties.

By the early 1950s Nina Ricci was nearing 70 years of age and slowly withdrew from an active role in design, choosing to just keep an eye on the house. Her son chose the new head designer in 1954, the Belgian Jules-Francois Crahay. Nina Ricci died on 30 November 1970 at the age of 87. Robert Ricci died in 1988 and the company was taken over by Nina Ricci’s son-in-law, Gilles Fuchs.