Jean Paul Gaultier reveals next guest couturier is Nicolas Di Felice

Jean Paul Gaultier has chosen Nicolas Di Felice, the creative director of Courrèges, to be the next guest couturier at the Paris couture house.

The collection will be presented during the next couture season in Paris, the house confirmed Monday.
 
Di Felice is the seventh guest designer to be invited to create a collection for Gaultier, a unique collaboration where a new designer is chosen each season.

“Really excited and honoured,” wrote Di Felice on his Instagram account followed by the heart emoji and @jeanpaulgaultier. While a photo showed Di Felice in a white t-shirt reading Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture By Nicolas Di Felice 
 
The news elicited an immediate deluge of enthusiasm and congratulations from fellow designers like Daniel Roseberry, Lutz Huelle, Guillaume Henry, Camille Miceli and Mark Howard Thomas.
 
The 40-year-old Belgium designer has won intense critical acclaim, particularly by French editors and critics, for his recent collections for Courrèges, a Kering Group controlled house that he has brilliantly revived.
 
Debuting in July 2021 this unique series on collab’ couture collections began with Chitose Abe of Sacai, who has since been followed by Glenn Martens, Olivier Rousteing, Haider Ackermann and most recently Simone Rocha.
 
As noted, the next Paris haute couture season has been moved up a week to avoid entanglement with the preparations for this summer’s Paris Olympics. As a result, the four-day couture week will run from Monday, June 24 to Thursday, June 27. In recent seasons, the Gaultier guest show has been staged after lunch on the Wednesday, which would mean Di Felice will present the collection on June 26. All of the guest couturier shows are staged in Gaultier’s historic headquarters on rue Saint Martin. 
 
Born in Charleroi in southern Belgium, Nicolas Di Felice began his career in 2008 at Balenciaga, during Nicolas Ghesquière’s tenure at that house, staying six years. He subsequently worked for Raf Simons, before joining Ghesquière again at Louis Vuitton for a further five years. 
 
In 2020, he was named creative director of Courrèges, and staged his early well received collections virtually online, the first in a suburban train station. Before beginning a series of fashion forward collections, staged in conceptual settings, like his most recent catwalk display where the whole stage beat like a giant heart.