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Nina Ricci is parting ways with her lead designers amid a transition to accessible luxury pricing and a digital orientation.

“It is by mutual agreement and after three and a half years of rich collaboration that the Nina Ricci house and its two artistic directors, Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter, have agreed to end their partnership”, indicated the brand in a statement on Monday. The house indicated that it planned a “new creative and innovative direction for Nina Ricci”, without specifying further. No replacement plan has been announced.

Dutch designers will instead focus on their own menswear and womenswear brand Botter, which is due to premiere at Paris Fashion Week in March. At Nina Ricci, they became known for their Caribbean-inspired color palette and houndstooth patterns. Their most recent collection was featured earlier this month for Nina Ricci Pre-Fall 2022.

“The Nina Ricci house warmly thanks Lisi and Rushemy for their poetic interpretations of the brand’s collections, which brought a new approach and a new sense of modernity to Nina Ricci on which we will continue to work,” the statement said.

Nina Ricci, founded in 1932, is well known for her perfumes despite her couture heritage as a figure-hugging seamstress. Like other small heritage houses, the brand has struggled to maintain relevance and recently closed its Paris flagship on Avenue Montaigne to focus on more affordable luxury with a digital-first strategy. In 2021, Paco Rabanne, owned by Puig, took over the space of Nina Riccci’s historic flagship. Charlotte Tasset, fashion and fragrance general manager at Nina Ricci, left last year and later joined Maje as CEO. A replacement has not been named.

Perfumes and cosmetics giant Puig acquired Nina Ricci in 1998, amid the worldwide recognition of its fragrance L’Air du Temps. A series of former designers of the brand have since sought to establish a ready-to-wear business, including Canadian designer Nathalie Gervais, Swedish designer Lars Nilsson, Belgian designer Olivier Theyskens, English designer Peter Copping (from 2009 to 2014), Guillaume Henry de Carven. and finally the Dutch pair.

Herrebrugh and Botter were appointed artistic directors of fashion at Nina Ricci in 2018, shortly after winning the Grand Prix Première Vision at the Hyères International Fashion and Photography Festival and finalists for the LVMH prize the same year. At Nina Ricci, they had succeeded Guillaume Henry, who had become artistic director of Patou.