Drew Henry's Courrèges Debut Swaps Di Felice's Sleek Space Age for Bright Colour, Raw Edges and a Hat Someone Sat On

Drew Henry showed his first Courrèges collection at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris on Wednesday, September 30, the first full runway for the house's new creative director. FashionNetwork counted 50 looks, shown in one of the museum's first rooms on the right-hand wing, with the audience seated on rows of mismatched chairs.

The reference point is the man Henry replaced. Nicolas Di Felice ran the house for five years, until last March, and FashionNetwork described his Courrèges as sculptural evening gowns, body-skimming silhouettes and sleek surfaces, the Space Age look sharpened and modernised. Henry went the other way. WWD found a freewheeling take on the house's codes, ribbed knits, vinyl jackets and the A-line dress, with lean jackets and coats given raw edges, metallic logos and thick belts worn high on the waist, over baggy pants in zesty colours. He flipped the A-line dress backward and made it unisex.

Courrèges

Colour is the clearest break. FashionNetwork listed bright and apricot orange, red, canary and washed-out yellow, chartreuse and grass green, baby blue and navy, and read it as a nod to the brand's early years. Logos turned up as necklaces, bracelets and die-cut plaques on pockets and collars. The clothes themselves were roomy and everyday: undone belts, sleeveless jackets, menswear-inspired dresses, shirts with raised open collars, towelling trousers and a knitted jumpsuit. FashionNetwork also noted that accessories, the financial anchor of the house, were redrawn, with PVC-sheathed hats and a rivet-edged handbag.

Henry's own story is the Phoebe Philo one. WWD describes him as South African-born, a Central Saint Martins graduate, and best known for his work with Philo at Celine and under her own label; AnOther adds Burberry to his history. He told AnOther he wanted a "breaking out of the white box" and that the collection should feel human, not the work of a single person. The pieces closest to the house, AnOther's Alexander Fury wrote, were chewed up, loosened and a little mangled: denim cut into tight Mod jackets with upturned collars, tweedy coats with the sleeves ripped out, and a classic vinyl jacket torn apart and patched into a draped messenger bag.

The archive did the humour. Both WWD and AnOther point to the hats, made by Jean Barthet and drawn from the house's early years before André Courrèges's 1964 Space Age collection. WWD opened its review on a shapeless pumpkin-coloured one, and Henry told the outlet its humour was the point. AnOther found lighter touches: a T-shirt printed "Bonjour," a handkerchief printed "Fin," and one near the end reading "au revoir."

Critics were warm but not unqualified. WWD gave it full marks for ballsiness and called it a confident if imperfect debut, with commercial pieces like tunics, fluid jumpsuits and body-skimming knits underneath the jokes. FashionNetwork asked the business question: Artémis, the Pinault family holding company that owns the brand, bailed out its debt in 2025, so will this sixties-flavoured effusion win over the current clientele or bring in a new one? The answer will show up in the accessories before it shows up in the clothes.