"Flower Girl" #1

My Premise for Peter Copping / Nina Ricci...

When the house of Nina Ricci contacted me a month ago I had no idea why the head designer wanted to meet me... all I knew was that someone in his studio had discovered my work, and that he liked it, a dear friend of mine who happen to work in the studio shouted " I know this girl" called me up and said " Rita, Peter want to meet you"...

Of course I answered yes immediately... I was curious but afraid of getting disappointed because I only except to work with people for whom I have a "heart beat"... Yes I am an old-fashioned romantic all the way...

well I feared in vain because my first impression of Monsieur Copping made me accept a collaboration with my eyes "wide shut" because he is one of the most polite fashion figures I've ever met, a real english gentleman, I am impressed by him and I feel lucky that our roads crossed for a second, by observing him I learned a lot... He knows exactly what he wants and isn't afraid of facing a challenge, the fact that he wanted to collaborate with a young designer like me shows that he is open minded and honest, I also like the fact that he doesn't suffer from the "Big Ego" problem most designers have, they create things that are impossible to wear or to commercialize just to give themselves the satisfaction and in the end the whole thing falls apart around them... Monsieur Copping I felt knew where he was taking Ricci, I admire that.

Peter kept the collection unrevealed for me, I thought that it was a wise decision, he didn't want me to get affected by what they already had started, I vaguely knew what the "story" would be about with one picture of beautiful dancers wearing silk dresses in colors that ended up to be the palette of the collection... That was pretty much the only information I got... He wanted me to make a premise quickly... In one week cause we only had three more weeks left before show time. Based on certain things he liked in my work I had to give him something he could use, and so I did... Unfortunately fault of time and in the need of answering what could be possible in retail we left out a couple of ideas and I ended up doing flowers only, I don't feel that it was a great challenge creatively to make those flowers, but they sure took a lot of time to do...

So there we were two weeks before the show with my first propositions, me not really knowing where we will end up, but I know that he knew exactly what he wanted from me and that was quiet a nice feeling because I could just relax have fun and create my gardens as if I was doing it for my own line knowing that he would make all the right decisions for both of us :)