Courrèges. Spring/Summer 2026 - Paris Fashion week

 

In 1967, the late André Courrèges, who was the fashion industry, at the time, stalwart futurist, modernist designer, released his "Couture Future" line, which was intended to up the ante of his stylizations due to the pelotha of knock offs of his signature label.  Also, of the same year, climatologists Syukuro Manabe and Richard Wetherald created the first computer modeling that successfully predicted human based emissions from Co2, will lead to a 2% increase in global warming.  Fast forward to 2025, Europe is facing its fourth consecutive year of heatwaves, and Courrèges creative director Nicolas Di Felice has titled his latest collection, "Blinded by the Sun".

Is Di Felice offering a renewed take on global warming, as an aesthetic awareness with his Spring Summer 2026 collection?  Probably not.  However, there is a metaphoric element to this collection, particular in the case of longer, and more intense summers, thus more sunlight.  Which ironically, is being caused by extended cloud cover over the Earth, within the upper atmospheres.  From global warming.  As the Earth heats up, it's also dimming, thus, trapped UV from Greenhouse gases, from the depleted ozone layer, is becoming more intense.  Hence the first part of the showing, models adorned Ultra Violet (UV) protected coverings, as the face, including the eyes, is the most exposed to the sun's UV radiation.  

And yet, paradoxically in this collection, as you would expect from Di Felice, he shows a lot of skin.  Which is very much part of Di Felice's reworking of André Courrèges modernist to the Belgium designer's postmodernist, eros orientated looks, and homage to the sexually liberated elements of the 1960s, as we moved into the delicious hedonism of the 1970s.   Decreeing in show notes, "When there’s lots of sun, sometimes you can't really see what you’re looking at", which is correct, that brightness, when overwhelming (like heat), can decrease details and expression.

The Spring/Summer collection is straight to the point, with fine tuned tailoring, and intricancy, as tonally it goes from light blues to black, with skin tones to ochre shades seen at the end of the collection.  Di Felice's latest array offers a more 1980s esque flow, with dashes of early manifestations of 80s Avant-garde, mixed with an amatory desire.  That in the near future, when UV will become less seasonal, and extreme all year around, and our UV patches tell us to go inside, evening wear will reflect our changing climate and world, fashion has always been that catalyst to change. 

Which, towards the finale of the runway showing, within the halls of the Carreau du Temple in Paris, the overhead lights became brighter, and hotter for the audience in attendance.  Maybe, Di Felice's metaphorical imprint, is also a warning?

___

(A.Glass 2025)