Inside the Courrèges Boutique, Soho’s Coolest New Destination

How can you tell that Nicolas Di Felice’s rebrand of Courrèges is white-hot? First came the Dua Lipa and Bella Hadid sightings. Then the Instagram takeover—fashion types of all stripes posting selfies and street style pics of themselves in the vinyl Reedition jacket Di Felice modeled after André Courrèges’s 1971 original, or the vinyl mini, or the vinyl over-the-knee boots—sometimes all three at once. Now, there’s a new corner boutique at 104 Grand Street in Soho, the brand’s first in the US since the founder’s days.

With three weeks to go until his fourth Paris runway show for the label Di Felice was in New York yesterday to show off the new space. A riff on its Rue François Premiere flagship, it’s all white walls and fixtures and gleaming mirrored surfaces, the better to show off the rainbow of Reedition vinyl pieces on the racks—don’t let these pictures fool you, the store is popping off with color. Designed by the Belgian architect Bernard Dubois, a classmate of Di Felice’s at La Cambre in Brussels, it makes ample use of Courrèges’s geometries: A circular console at the center of the square room is echoed by the circular rack that displays the clothes, and the entirely mirrored dressing rooms provide reflections from all angles. “Bernard has a radicality and an idea of minimalism that I love,” Di Felice says of the architect. The store’s press release points out the “club grade spotlights” on the ceiling. Part of Courrèges’s ascent is down to its artistic director’s penchant for putting on rave-like dance parties. Last night’s was at Nowadays in Brooklyn with br0nz3_g0dd3ss, Sene, Big Gay Idiot, and Bearcat on the deejay tables.