Jean Paul Gaultier Taps Courrèges’ Nicolas Di Felice as Guest Couturier

Nicolas Di Felice, creative director of Parisian fashion house Courrèges since 2020, will guest design Jean Paul Gaultier’s next haute couture show.

The show slated for June will be Di Felice’s first couture outing. The designer previously worked behind-the-scenes under Nicolas Ghesquière at Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga and for Raf Simons at Dior.

Puig-owned Jean Paul Gaultier shuttered its ready-to-wear line in 2014 after years of losses, allowing its founder to focus on image-making haute couture shows that create buzz for its core perfume business.

Since Jean Paul Gaultier stepped back from designing those shows in 2020, the brand has leaned on a guest designer program that’s seen Sacai’s Chitose Abe, Y/Project’s Glenn Martens, Simone Rocha, Haider Ackermann and Olivier Rousteing create collections for the house.

In recent years, Jean Paul Gaultier has also dipped a toe back into ready-to-wear with drops inspired by its couture shows (an anatomical-printed collection co-signed by Martens was a particular success), collaborations with brands like London-based KNWLS and capsules of reissued archival looks.

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From the Moon to Earth: Nicolas Di Felice’s Courrèges

‘I like the idea of a house linked to a form of utopia, of a shared project,’ the designer of the iconic space-age brand told Laurence Benaïm.