The Courrèges Fall 2026 collection was presented in Paris with a set design as stripped-down and pointed as the clothes themselves. The runway replicated a city street: narrow, marked with manholes and surface lines. It was so tight that the audience’s feet nearly grazed the hems of the models’ outfits. There was no spectacle for spectacle’s sake. The set communicated the concept before a single model appeared.
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| 👤 Creative direction: Nicolas Di Felice, marking his 5th anniversary at the house (since 2020) 🎬 Concept: “24 Hours in the Life of a Courrèges Woman,” inspired by Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman 🏙️ Set design: A replica of a Paris city street – narrow, with manholes and surface markings 🪢 Key materials: Vinyl (knife-pleated and casual), white satin, jersey with graphic cutouts 🎫 Standout pieces: Skirts and dresses printed with Paris metro tickets and cloakroom stubs 👜 New accessory: The Shadow bag – soft, functional, conforms to its contents 👗 Opening look: White satin dress draped over a metallic frame (archival reference) 🏁 Finale: All looks returned in full white – a symbolic blank slate 🧑🤝🧑 Notable casting: Veteran models Anne-Catherine Lacroix and Nataša Vojnović |
The concept, titled “24 Hours in the Life of a Courrèges Woman,” depicted a woman’s journey through a day and night. Creative director Nicolas Di Felice drew inspiration from the films of Belgian director Chantal Akerman, whose work quietly and intensely follows women through ordinary time. The choice made sense on more than one level. Di Felice is Belgian, and Akerman made those films in Brussels during the same decade that founder André Courrèges shook up Paris with his radical, geometric modernism. The two timelines rhyme.
The clothes themselves did not require the concept to justify them. Di Felice has spent five years building a clear-eyed and consistent aesthetic at this house. The Fall 2026 Courrèges lineup carried that vision forward with precision. There were slim coats with funnel collars, A-line silhouettes, and jersey pieces with graphic cutouts at the back and sides. The collection was designed for a woman who moves with purpose and dresses accordingly.
Vinyl, one of the house’s signature materials, appeared in two distinct forms. When knife-pleated, it became a skirt and a dress with genuine technical complexity. When worn as a T-shirt and matching trousers, however, it was more casual and irreverent. The fabric has been part of the Courrèges vocabulary for decades, but Di Felice keeps finding new ways to use it.
The collection also featured something lighter: evening skirts and dresses made from pieces of printed Paris metro tickets and cloakroom stubs. The effect was playful yet not overly precious. Alongside these pieces came the Shadow, a new bag that conforms to whatever is placed inside it. It is soft and functional.
The casting reinforced the mood. Veteran models Anne-Catherine Lacroix and Nataša Vojnović walked with the kind of self-possession that comes from having seen many runway shows come and go. Their presence wasn’t nostalgic; it read as confidence, which suited the collection well.
The show opened with a white satin dress draped over a metallic frame, referencing both a woman waking up and an archival photograph from the house’s early years. For the finale, the models returned to the narrow street, their looks entirely reworked in white – a blank slate and an open-ended proposition. Whatever a woman had worn throughout the day, she could start anew.
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Di Felice has made Courrèges genuinely desirable to a younger audience without softening the house’s edge. That is not a common achievement. Many labels court the young customer and end up with something that is neither young nor distinguished. This collection did not have that problem. The proportions were sharp, the references were earned, and the clothes looked like they belonged in a real wardrobe, not on a mood board.
In just five years, Di Felice has earned his place at Courrèges. The question worth asking now is how much further he intends to take it.
