“I feel like we’re living through a never-ending winter,” Nicolas Di Felice sighed over a crackling phone line. “Not just weather-wise, but in terms of the general mood.”
France, which seems to survive on a steady diet of strikes and protests, is reeling after President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to call snap parliamentary elections just weeks before the kickoff of the Summer Olympics. And for much of the country, there seems no end in sight to the rain.
All of which had Di Felice, who is doing double duty this season as guest couturier for Jean Paul Gaultier, fantasizing about his holiday retreat: the small Greek island of Amorgos. “I started to think about my summer wardrobe, and it wormed itself into our day uniforms,” he said of his spring 2025 men’s and women’s pre-collection.
The designer loves a technical challenge, so he took elements of diving and hiking gear and incorporated them into his minimalist looks. During summer, he lives in slip-on diving shoes, so he designed some in napa leather and Neoprene for back in the city.
On his mood board, an old pair of scuba shorts sat alongside the asymmetric button-tabs of a ‘70s-era collection designed by founder André Courrèges.
Inspired by these functional details, De Felice added belt-like waistbands to everything from a classic trenchcoat to peacoats with oversize collars, raw indigo pants and satin miniskirts.
But most intriguing was the way he repurposed an oversize belt loop detail to form graphic cutouts on a crisp white minidress with a Space Age feel, or a black tank top that framed a perfect set of abs.
“It was important for me to use these details, but without the look and feel of the collection being sporty,” he said.
Though he spoke of wanting to cater to different generations, the most memorable looks in this lineup were also the most unforgiving. In tune with his millimetric approach to pattern-cutting, “magic square” mesh tops sectioned the torso with scalpel-like precision. Better get cracking on that summer body.