Jean Paul Gaultier has chosen Nicolas Di Felice, the artistic director of Courrèges, as the guest designer for the upcoming Paris Fashion Week.
The collection helmed by Nicolas Di Felice will be showcased during the next fashion week in Paris, as confirmed by the fashion house of Jean Paul Gaultier yesterday.
Di Felice becomes the 7th designer to be invited by Gaultier. This collaboration strategy by the fashion house involves partnering with a new designer every haute couture season. “I feel extremely excited and honored,” Di Felice shared on his Instagram account along with a heart emoji and tagging @jeanpaulgaultier. Another photo shows Di Felice in a white T-shirt with the text “Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture By Nicolas Di Felice.”
This announcement quickly garnered enthusiastic support and countless congratulations from fellow designers such as Daniel Roseberry, Lutz Huelle, Guillaume Henry, Camille Miceli, and Mark Howard Thomas.
The 40-year-old Belgian designer has received much praise, especially from French fashion editors and critics, for his recent collections created for Courrèges, a fashion house under the Kering conglomerate that has been rejuvenated under his direction.
Since July 2021, Jean Paul Gaultier’s haute couture collaboration for each season has commenced with Chitose Abe of Sacai, followed by Glenn Martens, Olivier Rousteing, Haider Ackermann, and most recently Simone Rocha.
As announced, Paris Fashion Week has been moved up by a week to avoid overlap with the preparations for this summer’s Paris Olympics. Therefore, the four-day haute couture week will take place from Monday, June 24th to Thursday, June 27th. In recent seasons, Gaultier’s shows have been held post-lunch on Wednesday, meaning Di Felice will present his collection on June 26th. All guest designer shows will be held at Gaultier’s longtime headquarters on Saint Martin Street.
Born in Charleroi in southern Belgium, Nicolas Di Felice began his career in 2008 at Balenciaga for six years under the guidance of creative director Nicolas Ghesquière. He then worked for Raf Simons before rejoining Ghesquière at Louis Vuitton for the next five years. In 2020, he was appointed as the creative director of Courrèges, where his debut collections received accolades from the fashion industry.
