“André Courrèges made his mark on French haute couture. This is what makes Courrèges so modern, even today,” they said in a joint statement.įrench President François Hollande also sent a condolence message. “All his life, André Courrèges, with Coqueline, had never stopped moving forward, always inventing, always one step ahead: A visionary designer, who could already see what the 21st century would be like, and who believed in progress. Jacques Bungert and Frédéric Torloting, the former Young & Rubicam ad executives who bought the label from Courrèges and his wife Coqueline in 2011, paid homage to his drive to innovate. He was so understanding and so low-key, and he was a gentleman. It was something I really looked forward to. I had many, many things of his and it was such a pleasure to be with him and work with him. I would see a picture or two of his, and I just loved what he did. When he first started, I lived in London then. That was inexplicable. It was so fresh and so young - the very short skirts, the very high boots - and he was such a lovely gentleman. “I thought it was extraordinary that The Met never had a show on his work. I don’t think he was appreciated enough at all,” Lee Radziwill recalled. It was a young and different fashion - it was revolutionary,” de Givenchy said. He battled a long illness,” he said, recalling the reaction when Courrèges launched his house in 1961.

Hubert de Givenchy recalled that as a young man he would join Courrèges and his then-employer Cristóbal Balenciaga for evenings at the opera or ballet. The future still held promise, and fashion and design could reflect that spirit - so strong, healthy and fluid that it gave rise to an expression that did not require nostalgia nor exoticism to feed itself or gain momentum,” he said. It is the expression of the last optimistic decade in memory. “It’s the only style in the 20th century that eschews any historic or folkloric reference. But personally I never met him.”Ĭhristian Lacroix said he was in his early teens when the Courrèges look exploded. Lagerfeld said: “In the Sixties he was the biggest influencer of fashion. His influence is keenly felt nowadays, and there are many highly influential designers today that have assumed the heritage of Courrèges.” “He strived obsessively for freedom, functionality, modernity and relevance. “He was both a revolutionary and a visionary,” Toledano added.

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