Courrèges balances minimalism and sensuality at Paris Fashion Week

PARIS (AP) — Equestrian met beekeeper on Tuesday at Courrèges, where Nicolas Di Felice turned a helmet-veil silhouette into a recurring motif inside the Carreau du Temple in Paris’ Marais.

The Belgian designer has made a career of reviving the once space-age house with a club-ready edge, and this spring at Paris Fashion Week was no exception. Minimalism was the grounding note: black boots morphing seamlessly into socks in myriad variations, silver wrist clasps and sheeny black shades punctuating a sanitized, stripped-back mood.

But Courrèges is never just sterile. Sex appeal pulsed beneath the surface — a coatdress unzipped nearly to the crotch, bare skin flashing beneath. A shoulderless black mini trailed a floor-skimming train that licked behind the model with studied nonchalance.

A simple “solar” idea shaped the staging. The square venue became a circle, colors warmed from cool blues to sunset tones, and the soundtrack built to a white-hot finale. Accessories and fabrics hugged the body like a protective second skin; even the sunglasses sent as invitations hinted at glare and heat. The effect was clear and direct, not fussy: a steady rise in energy and light.

Founded in the 1960s by André Courrèges, the label was once synonymous with space-age futurism — geometric cuts, go-go boots, and glossy minimalism. Di Felice has kept that DNA intact while bending it toward the club, the desert rave, and the after-hours Paris the brand now speaks to.

He has built his vocabulary on loops, wraps and circles — Möbius-strip logic that turns simple shapes into asymmetric minis or spiraling party dresses. Here, too, he balanced technical cleverness with sly eroticism, a house signature since his “pocket” show last year.

The result was more proof of why Di Felice is seen as one of Paris’ sharpest revitalizers: fusing André Courrèges’ futuristic clarity with the sex, swagger and cultish energy of today’s club generation.