Andre Courreges designer presentation

By Hana Weber

André Courrèges•Born in Pau, France on March 9th, 1923.

•Trained as a civil engineer in school, later enrolled at a training college for the clothing industry in Paris.

•In 1947, Courreges worked as a designer at Jeanne Laufrie.

•In 1951, he joined Balenciaga and spent a decade in the master’s atelier before starting his own business in 1961. Balenciaga became his mentor, making a loan available to enable him to set up Maison de Courreges with his partner and wife Coqueline Barriere in 1961.

“Space Age Designer” and “Lord of the mini skirt”

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Courreges arcitectural mind led to a style that would cut away

superfluous material, banned decoration, establish geometry and new materials of fashion. He is

considered the father of the mini skirt and his style supported all manners of “fun”.

Three years after starting his own shop, Andre Courreges launched his moon girl collection. This was the beginning of a major fashion movement coinciding with the fascination with space, rockets, and sci fi popular culture.

“I think the women of the

future, morphologically

speaking, will have a young

body.”



1964 Inspiration from

Above

1964 and 1965 sets the stage for the future

Andre Courrages was preoccupied with space age white which contained thigh high skirts in white and silver colours and geometric shapes. He was influential in establishing white and silver as THE colours of the season. His models wore spacemen-like helmets. He created shiny white PVC boots to go with his collection. This look was so popular that everyone everywhere created and sold their own interpretations of the look.



Trouser Suits in the spring

collectionAndre Courreges also introduced trouser suits into his collection in 1964 and they soon entered main stream fashion on a large scale. These designs included angular mini dresses as well. The look was created by using heavyweight fabrics like gabardine. Many of the outfits had cut-out midriffs and backs and were worn without a bra. These were matched with flat boots, goggles and helmets taken from the equipment worn by astronauts. The stark shapes and white and silver colour scheme immediately earned the name Space Age.



Courreges shows his fascination with space age black and white in this pantsuit.

Other famous design

from 1965

Modern Fabrics and Futuristic Looks

Andre Courreges clothes were often futuristic-looking, inspired by ideas about space travel. He frequently used modern synthetic fabrics such as polyurethane, a form of plastic.



Andre Courreges, who designs for the "fun people" had them beaming and bubbling over his looks. Short skirts and the famous, omnipresent white boots made up the look of the year. These styles were ever present in his 60’s and 70’s designs.



Designing for the “Fun” People

Withdraw from market after success

• Courreges designs were so successful and widely plagiarized and often in crude copies, machine-made in cheap, foam-backed fabric.

• Then he suspended giving shows until 1967, but continued to design for private customers.



A legacy beyond fashion - Perfume

Lauched first line of perfume in 1972 and he is still producing several different perfume lines.

Legacy beyond fashion- automobiles



EXE car in 2004



Zooop car in 2006



La Bulle - Electric car introduced in 2002

• Courreges produced both couture and ready-to-wear lines of well-tailored designs, often in pastel shades, until his retirement.

• Like the majority of big name couturiers, Courreges now sells accessories, luggages and perfume in addition to his clothing ranges.

• Today Courreges holds an almost mythical status in fashion, especially in France, as well as being rememebred as a truly great designer.

A legend in the fashion world

More designs from Andre Courreges



This mini-skirt, waistcoat and coat with their clean, simple lines, geometric shapes and bold use of colour are typical of Courrages’ approach to design. This coat was included in one of Courrages' original couture lines in 1966. Due to their popularity, items from the same collection, such as this waistcoat and skirt, were re-issued in the early 1970s as part of his less expensive 'Hyperbole' range.



Suit in light grey pure wool shetland by Nattier. An interesting combination of shetland and white leather, used on the buttons, the tabbed cuffs, shoulder insets and the skirt;s pocket flaps. Small martingale in the back. Double belt closed with a white buckle. White leather boots.





Courreges likes his models and his clothes to look full of sparkling good health. Here, a bouncy dress of chocolate wool jersey, with an inset waistband and front tab forming a white cross and sewn-down imitation collar. Worn with ribbed white tights and brown leather boots.


1968

1968




Knee length dress in pure wool pique printed sky blue on white. Orange buttons down the side, and at the "key hole" neckline. A small white collar and buttoned patch pocket. Orange wig -"Mickey Mouse" glasses.



Courreges' pea jacket tops a white wool gabardine trouser suit. Note the buttoning, the topstitching, the belt and jacket monogram. As usual this year, the final touches are the flattest of white vinyl boots and the red baseball cap. The pea jacket is cut in beige pique wool.

1970 1971








1965-1967 1966-1968 1972

André Courrèges Fashion of 1970

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Andre Courreges designer presentation

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