Lars Nilsson was born in 1967 in Sweden. He spent two years studying at Virginska Skolan, a fashion school in Stockholm. He then went to Paris and spent one year at the Chambre Syndicale fashion college for Haute Couture.

His first internship was at Chanel where he worked under Monsieur Paquito. From Chanel, he moved to Christian Lacroix, where he remained for 9 years. In 1996, he worked for a few months at Pierre Balmain, before working for John Galliano at Dior.

In 1999 Nilsson moved to New York and joined Ralph Lauren, but he much preferred the type of clothes made by Bill Blass whom he joined in 2000. When Bill Blass retired the same year, Lars Nilsson became the house designer. He also brought with him his good friend right from college days, Herve Pierre.

Lars had only 21 days to prepare his first Bill Blass collection, but pulled together a solid blockbuster 27 pieces, which were greeted with applause and relief by the ladies who have always supported the house. The venue was intimate, the Blass showroom, instead of the Bryant Park tents where New York collections are usually shown. The lilac, double-faced silk-satin trench worn over paprika silk-velvet pants, shown in the picture here, was one of Nilsson's favourites.

There was a great shock in store, 24 hours after he had successfully presented his Bill Blass Fall 2003 collection in New York, he was fired by the Blass CEO along with his team of 6. His collection had been based on New York architecture, and had been acclaimed. It is not known why the house of Blass fired him and he was very shocked. Click on Blass for more details.

Nina Ricci

In early April 2003, it has been announced that Lars Nilsson will join the house of Nina Ricci. He will show his first collection for them in October 2003.

SS 2003