| Courrèges unveiled its Spring 2027 collection at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the first by designer Drew Henry. Henry, who trained at Central Saint Martins and worked with Phoebe Philo, succeeds Nicolas Di Felice after his five years at the house. The show revived a pre-1964 cloche hat and the 1964 Space Age boots. |
After five years of white walls, sharp cuts, and single-color discipline, Courrèges ended with a hat that looks like it was sat on. This is the clearest indication of what Drew Henry has in mind for Spring 2027.
Henry presented his first Courrèges collection, which looks nothing like the work of his predecessor. He had only a few weeks to prepare. The result is loose, colorful, and slightly untidy on purpose.
It was in the all-white Courrèges showroom that I first understood him. On a corner table sat a pumpkin-colored hat so shapeless that you wondered if someone had sat on it.
Nicolas Di Felice would never have pinned that hat to a mood board. He spent five years refining the brand with precise cuts and a mostly single-color palette. Henry went the other way.
The hat came from the archive. Designed by Jean Barthet, it dates from before André Courrèges unveiled his 1964 “Space Age” collection. Henry found a crushed tomato-red cloche that had been in a hat box for decades. Old photographs only showed it in black and white, so the color was a surprise to him. He had copies made for the show.
Henry was born in South Africa and trained at Central Saint Martins. He worked for Phoebe Philo at Celine and again at her own label. Henry also spent time with Daniel Lee at Burberry and with Jonathan Anderson.
Courrèges is the latest fashion house to hire from the studios of renowned designers. This has been fashion’s hiring committees’ habit for a couple of years now. The logic is straightforward: a designer who has worked at a renowned studio inspires confidence in the market before presenting their first collection. The risk is that houses start to resemble each other. Courrèges, whose founder built his reputation on being different, is the house that can least afford it. Henry moved from London to Paris in May.
His Philo years showed. The commercial pieces were solid: lean tunics, fluid jumpsuits, and knits that skimmed the body.
The show took place at the Palais de Tokyo on Wednesday. Henry loosened his grip on the house codes, which include ribbed knits, vinyl jackets, and A-line dresses.
Lean jackets and coats featured raw edges, metallic logos, and thick belts worn high on the waist. Baggy pants came in zesty colors. Chalky pastels sat next to lime and Kelly green.
Some details were odd yet appealing. There were unraveling hems and undone belts, and dresses were layered over each other as if found in a vintage shop. The mood continued with cartoon-flower bra tops, cage jumpsuits dotted with tufty blooms, and a pair of hot pants with a cutout over one hip. Then there were the Space Age boots, revived from the 1964 collection.
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The A-line dress received the best treatment. Henry turned it backward and made it unisex, which should please men and women alike.
Baggy colored trousers, raw-edged jackets, and high-waisted belts are pieces that can easily be borrowed from the women’s collection. A backward A-line dress gives men a Courrèges silhouette that was never designed with them in mind.
Henry says he finds the brand warm, not cold. He also admits that he struggles with its neatness. “I’m trying to get into what the softer side could be,” he told.
His mood board provides some insight: James Baldwin, Tracy Chapman, and Cher. He sees their devil-may-care attitude as being in line with the house’s original spirit. He called it “quite punky.“
Clearly, this was not a continuity appointment. Still, I would reserve a final verdict. Weeks are not months, and a debut rarely showcases a designer’s full capabilities.
Some of it was imperfect. A few looks felt like ideas still being sorted out. The pumpkin hat, which was charming in the showroom, might be better suited to setting the mood than to being a product.
