Courrèges, a brand that has always been fearless about projecting itself into the future, now finds itself negotiating a mid-life crisis. For the second time in less than a decade, the house is at a turning point.
It will not be showing during Paris Fashion Week in March. Instead, it is reconnoitering, building on what former artistic director Yolanda Zobel set in place and, notably, placing a fresh emphasis on sustainability.
Getting away from plastics—“the future” back in André Courrèges’s heyday—is key. Henceforth, the house intends to stick with the eco-conscious materials its recently departed designer introduced—organic cotton, recycled wool, and vinyl now newly developed from a biopolymer—for jackets, skirts, and dresses.
In a concise collection, the brand stuck to what its base likes—polos, trenches, minimalist silhouettes, and easy hues with the occasional hot flash of color. The next collection, which will be produced internally, will be shown in June. The new artistic director, the house promises, will be announced in the near future.
To help bridge the passage, a suite of perfumes will be launched this year, each composed by a different perfumer. Twenty-odd years ago, Courrèges launched a line entitled 2020—and here we are, flash-forward, in a future he didn’t entirely grasp—with a new fragrance colony that stretches until 2050.
With a little luck, the brand will pull it together to make it until then.
