Nicolas Di Felice Takes on Jean Paul Gaultier Couture
During couture week in Paris, the Jean Paul Gaultier show serves as a penultimate end to the schedule—taking place on the second to last day. Not only does it draw one of the biggest crowds, but it’s also one of the most fashionably eccentric groups, mixed with fashion school students, fans, performers, and even people in drag. Perhaps one of the most interesting things to witness has been exactly how that crowd changes since the brand decided to install a rotating cast of guest designers since Gaultier’s retirement in 2020. Previously, Simone Rocha brought an infusion of coquettecore, while Glenn Martens attracted people at the heart of experimental fashion. For fall/winter 2024, the chosen designer was Nicolas Di Felice, the artistic director of Courrèges, a.k.a. the modern master of hot minimalism for It-girls and fashion purists.
For Di Felice’s takeover, the Jean Paul Gaultier headquarters on Rue Saint-Martin was turned stark white, with an incredibly narrow runway and five rows of jam-packed seats. First came an all-black draped trench coat dress with a wide-splayed collar and veil that covered the model from the eyes down. Next, a shorter leather version of the first look with the aforementioned veil. And then, a slinky black column dress with a slight train on the bottom and a neckline that veered just below the model’s eyes. The sharp silhouettes undoubtedly make a striking impact; front-row guests were jostling for phone space like a game of Tetris to capture every single look on the hyper narrow runway.
Courrèges’ most recent show in Paris just a few months ago was a major hint at what was to come for JPG, with every single model wearing a streamlined, minimal look with their hand placed in a pocket below the navel. At the time, Di Felice said he was thinking about “something sensual and sensitive.” And here, we saw much of the same, with many of the models positioning their hands in low pockets between the upper thigh and lower stomach—in transparent lingerie-like shirts, on long corseted dresses, and in twisted, draped looks.
The collection was shocking in its subtlety, like the final transparent nude wedding gown-style dress that was covered in 10,568 hook and eye closures. On the runway, it looked like simple embellishment, but up-close it was quite the vision. The second to last look appeared to be a slinky chainmail number with a low pocket from afar, but a closer eye revealed 42,000 hooks and eyes linked together. Another long white dress sparkled as it came down the runway, with hundreds of hooks applied as if they were a sequin or a feather.
As a fashion house, Jean Paul Gaultier has been at the forefront of diversity in terms of size inclusivity, race, and gender. Di Felice, on the other hand, has been known to show mostly thin models in his shows for Courrèges. In preview interviews, he mentioned the groundbreaking work of inclusivity at the French house, specifically citing different bodies. One would have hoped this would have been a great opportunity for him to expand on that ethos.
The archives are always the biggest source of inspiration for each guest designer. Here, De Felice looked at several Gaultier shows, including spring 1999’s “Les Touristes Japonaises au Louvre,” fall 1986’s “Constructivism,” and fall 1989’s “Women Among Women.” Above all else, he seemed to take the lingerie element of the designer’s work and apply it to his own version of radical minimalism. Aside from the clever hook and eye embellishment, it may have been the most pared-back guest designer collaboration so far—but for De Felice’s biggest fans, that’s the perfect formula.
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