At Paris Fashion Week this season, front row guests have not been shy about flashing the nipple, creating a headache for outlets covering the shows for social media.
Nicolas Di Felice, artistic director at Courrèges, is all about another erogenous zone: the back. Several attendees at his Paris show wore his “magic square” tops made of nude mesh, which cover only the front of the torso, fully exposing the rear.
For next season, he’s reducing them to the size of censor bars, guaranteeing all his outfits pass the Instagram nipple filter.
“It’s the magic bandeau,” he said of the graphic bra tops, secured with rubber straps, that he paired with leather pants and wrap skirts in a mostly monochromatic palette.
In this let-it-all-hang-out era, there’s something to be said for subtle seduction. Well, maybe not as subtle as the opening look, a pod-like coat with a sharkfin hood that looked like a full-body prophylactic.
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It was Di Felice’s diving-inspired riff on an archival cape from 1962, the springboard for a collection rife with aquatic elements. His show set featured a 28-foot-wide version of an ocean drum, an instrument that mimics the sound of crashing waves, while the show invitation was a silver metal Möbius loop.
“I like that it has no beginning and no end. There’s no inside or outside either. It’s really a symbol of infinity,” the designer said backstage. “I was interested in the notion of cycles, things that repeat over and over again.”
His interest in geometry is not just theoretical. Di Felice is a killer pattern-cutter, and applied his loop theory to bra tops that morphed into apron dresses with deeply scooped backs. His black Infinity dress paired a sexy cutout neckline with a spiral skirt that was actually a skort — the ultimate “look, but don’t touch” design.
Meanwhile, jackets with strategically placed slits were woven through with fabric panels in constructions that evoked the graphic visual riddles of M.C. Escher. If that sounds daunting, he also offered more commercial takes, like miniskirts with slit waistbands, or the gray pants worn by Irina Shayk that zipped open along the thigh.
His wrap dresses, made from a single piece of fabric, were loosely pinned at the hip or suspended from invisible corsets. Looks were topped with visor-like sunglasses and earrings trimmed with fishing lure feathers.
Since taking the helm of the label in 2020, Di Felice has won legions of fans with his precise, minimal reinterpretations of the Space Age creations of founder André Courrèges.
It’s been a banner year for the designer, who delivered a critically acclaimed collection as guest couturier for Jean Paul Gaultier in June, and is preparing to head the jury at the Hyères International Festival of Fashion and Photography next month.
But even when you’re on a roll, a sense of sameness can set in. Di Felice confessed that he initially toyed with the idea of sending out 40 identical looks, in a commentary on algorithm-led design. Fortunately, he has some mathematical superpowers of his own.
