Nicolas Di Felice

Nicolas Di Felice has reshaped Courrèges, a once-sleeping giant of 1960s futurism, into a cultural cornerstone of the present moment. When Di Felice joined as artistic director in 2020, the French house had been through a few stuttered revivals, struggling to recapture the electric optimism of its past. But for Di Felice, the challenge wasn’t in looking back – it was in making those retro codes live again, not as nostalgia, but as something instantly relevant and unmistakably cool.

Born in Belgium, Di Felice’s gateway into fashion wasn’t the typical run of glamorous magazines or childhood sketchbooks. Instead, it was the costumes of Belgian music acts on late-night TV that caught his eye. He studied at La Cambre in Brussels, a school known for producing industry talent, before a pivotal moment brought him to Nicolas Ghesquière’s Balenciaga in 2008. There, he cut his teeth on avant-garde silhouettes, before joining Raf Simons at Dior and then Ghesquière again at Louis Vuitton, where he rose to become senior womenswear designer. Each of these experiences sharpened his sensibility for minimalism and modernity – traits he would later inject into Courrèges.

At Courrèges, Di Felice has found a way to reanimate the house’s signature vinyl and geometry. His vision isn’t about replication, but rather about remixing – taking iconic pieces like the vinyl trench or miniskirt and letting them speak a new language, suited to the desires of today’s audience. He added denim, made it personal, and kept the brand’s cool-kid DNA intact. The result? A Courrèges that feels young without trying too hard, one that’s equally comfortable on a Paris runway as it is on Beyoncé during her Renaissance Tour.

With Di Felice, Courrèges has moved beyond its status as a relic of the space age. It’s now firmly part of pop culture’s landscape again, worn by celebrities and endorsed by a new generation who may have only just discovered the brand. His tenure is proof that even the most storied houses can find a way to resonate if they have a designer who understands how to make history hit the right now.