Amidst the more familiar pics of a Blank Generation-era Richard Hell and young men in mosh pits on Nicolas Di Felice’s Courrèges moodboard are photos of Gianni Piacentino, an Italian artist of the 1970s with a thing for motorcycles—and motorcycle gear. Clicking through these images, there are references both direct and abstract to the artist. A streamlined leather jacket with Courrèges embroidered in block letters down a sleeve is lifted from one of Piacentino’s own jackets; it’s rare to see a logo here, but Di Felice has earned it. The leather harness strap accenting the Holy bag (and the metal hardware of a stamped python dress, for example) is a functional detail that gearheads of all kinds would appreciate; the neatest part is it’s adjustable—big enough for a helmet, say, and small enough for a little ribbed knit Courrèges sweater.
Being a bike lover, Piacentino’s work often featured wheels and circles—and circles are where his work and André Courrèges’s overlapped. Di Felice, who briefly rode a Suzuki XR SL when he moved to Paris from Belgium to work at Balenciaga, has already proved himself a deft hand with Courrèges’s geometries, but he keeps raising the bar. He points to the side seam of a little slip dress to show that the circular element isn’t merely decorative—he used the full shape. That’s true of other pieces too, like the a-line skirts and tiny tops with illusion net shoulders. One cool shirt is designed so that a sleeve, with the adjustment of a few buttons, can alternately be worn as a scarf, and the season’s strong outerwear extends those experiments, with striking asymmetrical lapel and collar details.
Now that he’s so comfortable and confident handling the house codes, Di Felice is focused on pushing things. He’s never used the lace you see here on a going-out top with a handy pocket for your keys on the sleeve; ditto the slinky hot-fix crystal mesh that he cut into a skin-baring dress. It almost looks like chainmail. He attests to many fabric trials to get the details right and he promises more surprises at the fall 2025 show in March.
Source link
