>> Not that it was expected any other way — Olivier is officially gone from the brand and sources have been pinpointing him as next in line for months — but now it's official: Peter Copping is the new artistic director at Nina Ricci.

He started at the brand on Monday and is already hard at work on a capsule resort collection, which is expected to be unveiled in late June.  It sounds like his first Nina Ricci runway show won't be in the Fall, but rather in March 2010 — the company wants to give him time to settle in (and hopefully get it right, considering that he's the third designer they've had within a span of three years — Theyskens started in 2006, and Lars Nilsson was in place before that).   

Copping hails from Louis Vuitton, where he spent 12 years and thus has plenty of experience with modernizing a French fashion house — and that's just what he plans to do at Nina Ricci — make it "contemporary again":

“I think it’s a name with a very nice history. I love all the French fashionisms, and Nina Ricci is very much a French house . . . We want to move away from a girl and be more about a woman.  I want the clothes to be very tactile, very luxurious — the kind of clothes a woman enjoys wearing, and with attention to detail, which is something I learned at Vuitton.”

He also plans to refocus the brand on its tailoring heritage and expand its accessories lines.  As for Theyskens, WWD reports that he is mulling his own line; but if that doesn't work out, insiders anticipate that he could helm the relaunch of Schiaparelli in 2010. 
*image: source