Fashion History – André Courrèges

André Courrèges, a name forever associated with futuristic fashion and avant-garde design, revolutionised the fashion industry in the 1960s with his innovative approach and visionary creations. His legacy continues to influence designers and fashionistas worldwide.

Early life

Born on the 9th of March 1923, in Pau, France, André Courrèges was the son of a butler. Growing up, his father encouraged him to pursue a career in engineering, leading him to study at the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris. During World War II, he served as a pilot in the French Air Force.

After the war, Courrèges shifted his focus to fashion, enrolling at a training college to study fashion and textile design. In 1945, he began his career at the Jeanne Lafaurie couture house, where he worked for four years. In 1950, he joined the esteemed fashion house of Cristóbal Balenciaga, where he honed his skill for over a decade.

Establishing his own Fashion House

In 1961, Courrèges launched his own fashion house in Paris. Initially his designs were characterised by well-tailored suits and dresses with geometric seaming and clean lines. His superbly cut trousers attracted notice, with his designs influenced by Balenciaga, with garments that were well sculpted for women. His clientele were mature, conservative women with a high disposable income.

In 1963, André began to be known for extremely simple, geometric, and modern designs. He continued to be known for his women’s trousers and a love of white, including ‘the little white dress.” His slim fall trousers of the same year extended in a clean lines onto the top of the foot. Designers that season showed women’s boots of all heights for the first time, establishing a norm that continued in autumn collections for at least the next 15 years. Courrèges’ clothes for 1963 were often paired with flat, slim-shafted boots to the lower calf. The white versions attracted particular attention and became known as the Courrèges boot, which evolved into the go-go boot. Boots of this shape would be a staple of his collections for the next two years.

You don’t walk through life anymore. You run. You dance. You drive a car. Clothes must be able to move too

André Courrèges

With these collections, Courrèges intended to overcome the uncomfortable artifice that had dominated fashion of the 1950s. He promoted a new ideal body type that he felt was more in line with modern women’s lives. These collections were so transformative that some fashion writers compared them to Christian Dior’s 1947 Corolle collection in importance. Their influence in 1967 touched everyone, from top hairdresser Vidal Sassoon to Coco Chanel, who showed her first pantsuits a few months after Courrèges introduced them to the couture world in 1964.

Spring 1964 Collection

His spring 1964 collection continued to feature his distinctive boots, pantsuits, and brought above-the-knee skirts to Paris haute couture for the first time. White dominated the collection. He presented simple, slightly flared chemise dresses that hit above the knee, well above the knee when paired with his signature calf-high boots. In the 1963 fall season, almost all designers had shown boots of various heights, it for spring of 64, Courrèges was the only designer to include them. Their characteristic narrow cut and perfect proportions continued to win praise from the fashion press. Low-heeled pumps were also shown.

His trouser outfits attracted the most attention, launching the pantsuit trend. This season, his trousers stayed narrow, but were set on the hip, creased in front, and were slit over the instep to maintain a clean, unbroken line. They were paired with well-tailored, geometric coats, jackets and tunics which featured prominent buttons, low-set martingales, and pocket flaps – which would become one of Courreges’s signature design details. He showed his day clothes with tall, mostly brimless hats giving a Space Age feel. His trouser emphasis also extended into his evening wear, where he incorporated bare skin with uncovered backs and open work lace.

Fall 1964 Collection

His autumn 1964 collection advanced the fashion industry with modern, futuristic designs that were unheard of at the time. Trousers dominated the showing again, slit over the instep like his previous collection, but with a slightly narrower cut and pronounced creases in the front and back.

The collection included tailored coats, jackets and tunics, which were paired with trousers or his version of the mini skirt. He paired his shorter skirts with white or coloured calf-high leather boots that added a confident flair. This look became one of the most important fashion developments of the decade and was widely copied.

His familiar geometric shift dresses were marked with a characteristic shirt sleeve. Coats were narrow. Jackets were longer and had deep vents. Some were marked with a hip seam. All of these clothes held their shape via precise tailoring and fabrics of substantial body. Many of these were also double-faced, with a great deal of garbadine.

For this collection, no shoes were shown. The boots were the same height and shape that he’d shown since 1963, but he added pleating or stitching at the top of the shaft. As with his previous collections, the white kid ones were the most popular, but he also offered them in patent finishes, suede, lizard, and vinyl in various colours. A pair of pink satin evening boots with ribbon at the top of the shaft weee even shown, part of an increased emphasis on evening wear for this collection.

His evening dresses were as short as his daywear collections, but evening trousers dominated. Evening styles had accents if Space Age silver, metallic pink, metallic green, and other colours, all combined with Courreges’s signature white. Sheen and texture were provided by ciré finishes, lamé, sequins, geometric pailettes, and vinyl. Bareness continued to be a feature, especially for evening wear, where midriffs and backs were often in display. The presentation included a model getting dresses from a state of near nudity, which would be a mainstay of Courrèges shows that would last into the early 1970s.

The most talked about hats from the collection were helmet-like squared-off bonnets that matched the clothes and tied in the middle of the chin with a stiff geometric bow. Short, white gloves were included with almost everything. The models used by Courrèges this season were slim, muscular, and very tanned, striding out to the beat if the drums.

Spring 1965 Collection

Courrèges continued with his futuristic 1964 styles, when he shortened his skirts even more and opened the toes of his signature white boots. This collection also included flat Mary Jane shoes, a style that would become a mainstay for the designer through the end of the decade. His spring 1965 versions had the same open toes as his boots, and had a bow on the instep strap. Some of his boots had a wraparound cutout near the top of the shaft, suggesting an absent ribbon. The open toe on his footwear during this time was not the shaped, contoured hole usually seen on open-toed pumps. It looked like a straight lopping off the front of the foot piece or as if the toe piece had not been sewn down to the sole, but had just been left open with the toes hidden beneath.

Other accessories included opaque white glasses with a slightly curved, horizontal slit for vision, low, narrow hip-belts, band-edged, squared-off, cowboy and mortarboard-looking hats with chin straps, and striped scarves to match the outfits. Although the collection was still mostly white, but included more colours, including pastels, brights, navy blue, black, as well as some patterns like plaid and stripes.

Some jackets were lined with large, graphic stripes. Courrèges made use of graphic banding for emphasis, including along the inseams of his trousers. His pants this season sat lower on the hip and were no longer slit over the foot. Pockets were now horizontal slits, and were often outlined in the same colour as the banding. A lone pair of jodhpurs in yellow and white plaid were shown.

For this collection, more emphasis was placed on his new shorter skirts. Still carefully tailored to a trapeze shape in minimal, sleeveless or short-sleeved shift dresses, many featuring small, rolled, stand-away collars and lapels. Necklines were often round or squared. Coats were similar, but of course with long sleeves. Many of his jackets were a simple waist length, establishing a style that would be characteristic of his collections into the 1970s.

Introduced this season were suspender dresses and skirts, a mini style with suspender-like extensions over the shoulder. These were often in wide, horizontal stripes with matching coats or jackets and worn with minimalistic white tops. Suits were double or sing,e breasted. Eveningwear was in the same shapes as daywear but with sections made to shimmer in solid coverings of tiny sequins and beads.

This seasons runway strip involved a pink wool suit being removed to reveal Courrèges undergarments. Consisting of a sleeveless top, hip-slung short shirts, and calf-high socks, all in a transparent fabric embroidered with white dots, the styling was impeccable.

1965-66 Hiatus

The uncontrolled copying of Courrèges’ fall 1964 and spring 1965 lines disturbed him. This led to him declining to present a fall 1965 collection, resulting in a hiatus until 1967, though he did make a few garments for private clients. Courrèges was particularly bothered by the low-quality of the copies, feeling that average women were being denied quality items because of shoddy imitations. This led to a concern about affordability, which resulted in his resolve to create a lower-priced ready-to-wear line so more people could access his work. Like a growing number of young designers during this period, he started to see haute couture as outdated and at odds with modern women’s lives and with the economic reality. He spent much of his time trying to secure manufacturers who could produce lower-cost garments with a high-quality which he would call Couture Future. These would be sold in a new boutique downstairs from his couture salon, which was moving from Kleber Avenue to François Street in Paris, enabled by French beauty company, l’Oréal.

The years between 1967 and 1971

In February 1967, Courrèges restarted his couture showings, after his year and a half of refusing to show collections. The same month, he introduced his new ready-to-wear line Couture Future. He didn’t just sell from his flagship store, he continuously added new styles to the boutique stock. The following year, he began presenting Couture Future lines alongside his couture garments in a single fashion show each season. Although the ready-to-wear line was more accessible to more women at roughly a quarter of his couture pieces, it was still costly.

The collections though 1967 to 1971 looked very different from the 1964-65 clothing that had brought him fame. Skirts were still mini length, even more in fact, shoes were still flat, there was still a futuristic look, and there was still a lot of white. However, lines of the clothes were more rounded, there was more colour, and garments weren’t as stiff. This led to many comments stating that the new collections were softer, sweeter, and more girlish. Dresses and coats were now mostly A-line, paper doll-like silhouettes that flared from the rib cage to a micro or mini hemlines. There was even more of a childlike look to his models as he presented occasional infant-style rompers, with models painting large freckles in their faces and wearing their hair in pigtails. Courrèges still continued to favor short hair, showing geometric, blunt, chin-length, crayon-vivid Dynel wigs from 1968 to 1970.

During this period, Andrè used more medium-build and curvy models thean the slim, athletic ones he had used for his shows in 1964 and ‘65. They also brought fun to fashion, smiling and dancing on stage to percussive jazz music, instead of striding soberly. This would feature in his runway shows until 1973.

During the 1967 to ‘71 period, Courrèges emphasised jumpsuits instead of pantsuits. Most notably was ribknit body stockings and jumpsuits, some footless, some with feet, that he called catsuits. These were intended as a backdrop for his other garments, and were even offered in shorts lengths for the summer. This use of tights and body stockings as a basis for an outfit was a trend of the time that fit well with his accent in functionality in dress.

Not everything about Courrèges’ designs had changed. As with his pre-hiatus collections, he still used lots of welt seaming and geometric construction. There was also the inclusion of waist-length jackets which had been introduced in 1965, but these were now more like jean jackets in short and long sleeve styles, a style that he would present well into the 1970s. He also showed waist-length capes. From 1967 to ‘69, he scalloped the edges of a lot of his garments, giving them a frilled edge that still looked geometric. Flower motifs were also a favourite in 1967-68, similar to Mary Quant’s trademark use of daisies and paralleling the emphasis on flowers in the era’s youth culture.

In the late ‘60s, Courrèges was one of a group of designers who rejected the moves towards ethnic, hippie, and revival styles, which they thought were nostalgic, continuing to show futuristic designs in almost exclusively mini and micro mini lengths. Courreges’s expressions of this style included continued use of white, circular geometry, lots of zippers, snaps, and tabs, and use of plastic and vinyl, though traditional fabrics of more substantial body like wools and cottons still were the bulk of his textiles. Additionally, he also used leather, especially for coats, some of which were finished to be wet-look and shiny. In 1970, Courrèges used leather and patent leather in piping and banding, including in his knit catsuits and knee socks. That year, it was unclear whether the mini-loving modernists would be more popular or if the midi-favouring nostalgics would, and Courrèges and his fellows were briefly seen as the potential fashion leaders again, as they had been in the mid-60s.

Courrèges added a few longer skirt lengths to his collections starting in 1969 when he showed some calf-length evening dresses that were extended versions of his shorter dresses. His spring 1969 collection still featured micro minis in solid metal with matching breast bands that were futuristic but different to the 1966-67 Paco Rabanne trapeze minidresses that consisted of separate small plates of metal. In 1970, the fashion world strived to impose calf-length hemlines on everyone, but Courrèges included knee-length, calf-length, and ankle-lengths in both his daywear and evening wear, though minis and micro minis still dominated.

The main pant styles Courrèges designed during this period also followed the trends of the time. Starting off with his signature long, sleek trousers, he expanded into flared and even hiphugger bell bottom styles by the end of the period, particularly in 1968-1970. He also showed longer, thigh-length shorts. The era’s ethnic trends were followed somewhat by Courrèges in 1967 when he included a jumpsuit with harem legs, and in 1969 when he showed a few full, knee-length pants that he called knickers. He still showed short shorts under maxi coats and maxi dresses when the hot pants trend peaked in 1971.

At the end of the 60s, Courrèges really maximised his use of cut-out details, placing circular cutouts in the centre of the chest and stomach, down the sides, or down the legs that allowed his catsuits or bare skin to peek beneath. The period’s trend toward bareness and nudity was nodded to by Courrèges in see-through fabrics, runway toplessness, and backs so low they revealed the behind, as well as more traditional styles like plunging and keyhole necklines. In 1971, he introduced a bare cut to some of his tops that looked like the top of overalls, with open-sided front panels and loose straps over the shoulders, a style that he would continue to show through the mid-seventies.

The Courrèges boots from 1967 to 1970 were still flat, but now mostly knee-high and fitted, in the dominant style of the time. In 1970, he showed boots that had fuller shafts, as the new decade brought a shift toward boots in that style. The other footwear he showed during this period continued to be flat Mary Janes that were sometimes referred to as slippers. His footwear would have different design details from season to season, broad and round-toed one season, squared the next, trimmed in metal the next, and even including light-up, plastic accented in 1970. For summer, knee socks were favoured by Courrèges over boots, with sheer ones for evening.

During this period, he made playful, oversized eyewear that gave his shows a characteristic, futuristic element, creating huge cartoon eyes in 1969, or huge eyelids edged in cartoonish eyelashes in 1970. In 1968, his first purses were introduced as part of his read-to-wear line, and in 1969 his first swimsuits followed suit.

In 970, a second, even lower-priced ready-to-wear collection was added called Hyperbole, as Courrèges was still concerned with the accessibility of his work. He maintained the made-to-order couture line, officially naming it Prototypes in 1971.

Courrèges in 1972 – 1979

To facilitate the opening of his ready-to-wear line in 1968, Courrèges had sold a share of his company to l’Oréal. By 1972, this line included 125 boutiques around the world. That year, he was commissioned to design the staff uniforms for the Munich Olympics, and began offering menswear in 1973. He also developed fragrances like Empreintem Courrèges Homms, Eau de Courrèges, Courrèges Blue, Sweet Courrèges, and Generation Courrèges.

From 1972 to 1979, Courrèges’s womenswear conformed to current trends somewhat, but he still remained devoted to shorter hems than most. He also continued to use plastic, metallic silver, and white during the era of longer skirts, natural fibers, and earth tones. The 1970s question of whether ethnic or futuristic looks would prevail was answered, as longer-lengths, and ethnic, gypsy, and peasant influences took hold and became the norm.

Courrèges adapted by lengthening his shortest skirts to just above the knee, which was considered mini length during the era. For daytime, he included some knee-covering lengths, softening his silhouette with fuller cuts. His trouser shapes also reflected the current trends, with Courrèges showing flared pants in the early 70s, and pegged pants toward the end of the decade. He incorporated layering, softer colours, and accessorised with soft berets, mufflers, and deep-toned, luggage-quality boots that reflected the popular look of the time. By the end of 1972, his catsuits had long gone, but he showed updated versions of his waist-length jackets,

More changes during this period came with his fashion shows. In 1972, they were still showy with lots of dancing, but by the end of 1973 the dancing was gone, and the colours became more subdued by the end of the 70s. He did still continue to show his haute couture and ready-to-wear lines together in a single fashion show each season.

In 1972, he followed Pierre Cardin and Valentino, among others, by placing his logo visibly on many of his garments. This was most notably on sweaters which quickly became status symbols. He stated at this time, that the initials AC didn’t for his name, but for André and Coqueline in homage to his wife and partner. In 1978, he changed to putting only his name, spelled out on the outside of his clothes instead. As a designer that still favoured short skirts, he easily moved into designing tennis wear as a sport that increased in popularity during the 70s.

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