Under Harris Reed, Nina Ricci Gets a Big Beauty Launch
Nina Ricci's fragrance division is getting a refresh courtesy of creative director Harris Reed. At the end of September, the French fashion house will launch Vénus, its first new perfume in 18 years.
The scent marks Reed's first fragrance project since joining the house in 2022. That said, the British-American designer is no stranger to the world of scent.
Reed's mother, Lynette, is an artist and fragrance expert who previously launched several now-defunct perfume lines. Reed themself offers home fragrance under their own eponymous brand. In 2019, they even appeared in an ad campaign for Gucci's Mémoire d'une Odeur, the brand's first unisex scent.
Nina Ricci's fragrance division has remained relatively dormant since it launched Nina, its last franchise, in 2006. While the brand has introduced upwards of 20 flankers to the scent over the years, Vénus is its first brand-new scent in nearly two decades.
With the launch, Reed hopes to remind customers of Nina Ricci's heritage. Vénus is an homage to Robert Ricci, Nina's son and the one responsible for launching the brand's first perfume in 1948: L'Air du Temps, a scent that would become one of the best-selling fragrances of the 20th century (it counts greats like Chanel No. 5, Guerlain Shalimar, and Lanvin Arpège among its competitors).
While L'Air du Temps is a sparkling floral, Vénus is, according to Reed, an "addictive vanilla" with notes of patchouli and magnolia.
“I had this ambition: It has to be big, addictive, sensual and celebratory of womanhood and of individuals,” Reed told WWD.
Nina Ricci joins several major fashion houses doubling down on fragrance (ICYMI: The category is booming).
Last month, Balmain resurrected its perfume division with "Les Éternels," a range that riffs that some of the house's best-selling scents from the '40s and '80s.
Valentino introduced a line of "Haute Couture" perfumes, priced more luxuriously than its mainline fragrances, in July. Rabanne followed suit with La Collection Rabanne, a line of similarly premium scents.
Nina Ricci's latest move raises speculation regarding the brand's potential expansion beyond fragrance into cosmetics. After all, Reed is a beauty icon in their own right — their bold makeup earned them a MAC collaboration back in 2021.
