Nicolas Di Felice is leaving Courrèges after five years as creative director. For the brand, this marks the end of an important chapter, because it was under his direction that Courrèges began to feel like a living fashion house again rather than simply a beautiful name from the history of French fashion.
The designer announced his departure on Instagram, where he shared images from his time at the house and reflected on the experience in a personal statement. In his post, he wrote: “What an incredible adventure! I still look back with so much love on my first day in this wonderful house, where everything had to be rebuilt from the ground up.” He then thanked everyone who took part in that process: “I want to sincerely thank all the people who contributed - through their talent and their work, in one way or another - to the revival of Courrèges.”
Di Felice also mentioned those who believed in him and in the project itself: “I also want to express my gratitude to everyone who believed in me and in this project - François, François-Henri, stylists, models, photographers, journalists, buyers, and so many others who supported us along the way.” He ended his message with the words: “I am leaving the house to dedicate myself to other projects, but I will always keep unforgettable memories of this incredible journey, and I wish the house all the very best for the future.”
When Di Felice arrived at Courrèges, the brand needed more than just a new designer - it needed a new pulse. He managed to restore shape, identity, and visibility to the house. He did not try to turn Courrèges into a museum of the 1960s, nor did he build his work around direct archival quotation. Instead, he took some of the house’s core codes - vinyl, geometry, short hemlines, cool sensuality, futuristic clarity - and transformed them into a contemporary wardrobe that felt relevant again in the real fashion conversation.
And honestly, this can be said without idealizing his tenure: not every collection was equally strong. Personally, many of them felt painfully dull to me. But that is exactly the paradox - even so, Di Felice was the one who made people talk about Courrèges again, and more importantly, love it again. Not through scandal, not through one viral moment, but through a steady return of the brand into fashion discourse. He made Courrèges recognizable, youthful, and desirable again.
If we look back at his most memorable shows for the house over the past five years, one of the most important was Spring 2022. That was the moment it became clear that Courrèges under his direction would not exist as a retro fantasy of the past. This season was where the brand began to feel truly alive again - more physical, more daring, more open to youthful energy. It already contained the version of Courrèges Di Felice would continue building: sharp, sensual, urban, and free of unnecessary theatricality.
Fall 2023 was another particularly strong season. It was one of those shows where the clothes did not exist separately from the moment but seemed to move with it. There was a tension running through the collection that reflected contemporary life - screens, distance, anxiety, loneliness within constant visibility. Di Felice is often most compelling precisely when he moves beyond simply polished minimalism and reveals that beneath this visual clarity there is also the pulse of the present.
Spring 2024 was also among his strongest. This show highlighted his ability to work with construction and with the space surrounding the clothes. He knew how to make garments feel controlled, almost severe, without making them lifeless. There was always a sense of discipline in his Courrèges, but never total coldness, and this season captured that especially well.
Spring 2025 also deserves to be named as one of the key moments of his tenure, because it showed particularly clearly how strong he was as a designer of form. It was not a show driven by overt emotion, but it was one where his work with line, cut, the joining of separate elements, and the body in motion became especially visible. Collections like this explain best why his era at Courrèges mattered: he did not just refresh the brand visually, he built a new plastic language for it.
Fall 2025 deserves separate mention as an example of how Courrèges became more than a brand with recognizable clothes - it became a brand with its own atmosphere. In this show, the feeling of collectivity, presence, almost club-like energy, was especially strong. Di Felice managed to create not just an aesthetic around the house, but an environment people wanted to be part of.
And of course, Fall 2026 - his final show for Courrèges. It carried the feeling of a conclusion, though without excessive drama. Rather, it felt like a precise ending to five years of work: gathering once again everything he had built for the brand - urban sensuality, graphic clarity, restrained provocation, disciplined silhouette - and bringing it to a close. It was not a farewell spectacle built on grand emotion, but it was a very logical ending for a designer who truly returned Courrèges to relevance.
The most important thing Nicolas Di Felice did at Courrèges was give the brand a contemporary reason to exist again. He did not simply refresh the archives, nor did he merely put the house on track for a polished commercial comeback. He gave it a new perspective, a sharper identity, and a new generation of people for whom Courrèges became meaningful again. And even if not every collection invited endless quotation, he was the designer who made sure this fashion house stopped feeling silent and became alive again.
