Courrèges CEO Talks Growth, Holy Handbag and West Coast Expansion

PARIS — Luxury spending may be slowing, but for Adrien Da Maia, the future looks bright.

After doubling revenues last year, the Courrèges chief executive officer plans to open four stores in 2024, including a new flagship in the Marais district of Paris. In the U.S., the house is set to inaugurate its first West Coast location at the South Coast Plaza mall in June.

While the executive still sees Courrèges as “under construction,” the Space Age label has come a long way since Da Maia and creative director Nicolas Di Felice came on board in 2020 with a mandate to revive the sleeping beauty owned by Artémis, the private investment arm of France’s Pinault family. 

Buoyed by critically acclaimed collections, Courrèges is now carried by leading retailers including Bergdorf Goodman and Maxfield in the U.S.; Dover Street Market in Japan and China; NK Store in Brazil; Galeries Lafayette and Le Bon Marché in France, and Harvey Nichols in the U.K. and Dubai.

“We’ve already come a long way, and there’s still a long way to go. The fundamentals are very good and I think one of the key takeaways after three years is that step one has been a success, because we pulled off this comeback,” Da Maia told WWD ahead of the brand’s fall show on Wednesday during Paris Fashion Week.

“What comes next is not set in stone, and that’s what’s exciting too. What is certain is that we will do it with the same consistency, the same precision,” he continued. “There’s really no limit to what Courrèges can become.” 

Di Felice has been busy with side projects, from designing stage outfits for Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour to staging a pop-up with independent record store Dizonord in Paris. And the pace shows no sign of slowing: he will head the fashion jury at the 39th edition of the Hyères International Festival of Fashion and Photography. 

In the meantime, the brand is focused on the launch of its new bag, the Holy, which has all the hallmarks of an “It” bag, including an attractive price point of between 790 euros and 1,290 euros.

And it has China in its sights, having launched its official flagship on Tmall Luxury Pavilion last August ahead of Chinese Valentine’s Day, as part of a push to attract digitally native Gen Z fashionistas to the brand.

Da Maia sat down with WWD to discuss Courrèges’ store expansion and ambitions to grow its burgeoning accessories, menswear and beauty segments — all while keeping a finger on the cultural pulse.

WWD: Last year was a period of strong expansion for Courrèges. What are your strategic objectives for 2024?

Adrien Da Maia: We’re still in a phase of expansion and building. For the last three-and-a-half years, we’ve been working with Nicolas Di Felice on realizing the full potential of Courrèges and given the history of the house, that potential is virtually unlimited.

We want to keep up that momentum because we’re enjoying incredible growth and the collections have been very well received, so the idea is to keep doing what we’ve been doing successfully and to grow in our key markets.

WWD: What are your plans for retail?

A.D.M.: We have six directly operated stores and there will be 10 by the end of the year.

We just opened a beautiful 1,185-square-foot shop-in-shop at Galeries Lafayette’s flagship department store in Paris in December.  

Our sales per square foot in department stores are quite extraordinary, especially considering the product mix does not lean on accessories. 

We’ve had a shop-in-shop at Galeries Lafayette since Nicolas’ first collection in September 2021 and we saw great results very quickly, which allowed us to increase the space fivefold. The store has upgraded its offer and offered us a prime position on the revamped floor alongside brands like Dries Van Noten, Jil Sander and Jacquemus. 

We’re opening another location in the Marais district, a store I’m very proud of, that will sit in the location of the former post office on Rue des Francs-Bourgeois. That opening is planned for June.

This reflects our increasing ambition for retail following the opening of our boutique in the Marais in 2021. This store will carry fast-growing categories like accessories and men’s. It reflects the work we’ve been doing on the brand and will allow more people to experience the new Courrèges, because it’s a street with very high traffic and great visibility. It will be five to six times bigger than the previous store, with a surface of 230 square meters.

WWD: Will you close the other store in the Upper Marais?

A.D.M.: That store was designed like a pop-up, so that’s how it will function this year. We just wrapped a very nice chapter with the pop-up we did with Dizonord. 

The idea is not to have two stores in the Marais, so ultimately, we won’t be keeping that store. But this year at least, we’ll run the two locations, with the Upper Marais store hosting animations and surprises as it’s smaller, but lends itself very well to events.

WWD: What is the importance of culture in the strategy of Courrèges?  

A.D.M.: The Dizonord collaboration is a great expression of the importance of culture at Courrèges, and it’s something we really want to continue doing whenever it makes sense.

Nicolas brings a lot of authenticity to his work at Courrèges, and I’m sure there will be plenty of other moments when we will announce projects with a cultural bent. We also teamed up with the Centre Pompidou last May for its “Over the Rainbow” exhibition. These are things we believe in that allow us to express the values dear to the house and to Nicolas. 

WWD: What international openings do you have planned?

A.D.M.: In the U.S., we’re opening our first point of sale on the West Coast at the South Coast Plaza shopping center.

Following the success of our New York boutique, opened in September 2022, this location will allow us to serve the West Coast customers who love the brand. It’s an interesting story because the owners of South Coast Plaza used to distribute Courrèges in the ‘70s, so the Segerstrom family was very keen to make the new Courrèges available to their customers. We’re proud to be able to open in such a prestigious shopping center. That should also happen in June.

This is where André Courrèges expanded initially. His first overseas store in ’73 was on Rodeo Drive, and he was drawn to the U.S. from the start. 

I foresee other stores there because demand is strong and we want to rebuild a store network for Courrèges in line with the quality of the product and the ambition of the brand.

WWD: Last September, you opened your first store in Asia at the Shinsegae Gangnam department store in Seoul. Are there more stores opening in the region? 

A.D.M.: There will be further activity overseas with department stores, though I can’t share details at this stage. We’re planning some more openings in South Korea, where the brand is enjoying great momentum.

In 2023, Asia was the fastest-growing region for the house. Courrèges is a brand with global ambitions, so naturally, China, South Korea and Japan are already major markets for us. 

It’s not our biggest market, but we’re similar to many traditional luxury brands whose revenues tend to be spread evenly between Europe, the U.S. and Asia. 

WWD: Is that your sales split, or do you have a dominant market?

A.D.M.: France is the biggest market in terms of retail, because most of our stores are here, but if you take into account wholesale distribution and online sales, it’s evenly split. 

WWD: What are your plans for wholesale?

A.D.M.: Today, Courrèges has 250 active wholesale accounts. We don’t aim to have many more. It’s important to be able to build with our partners rather than try to have too many.

WWD: How did the brand perform in 2023?

A.D.M.: Our revenues doubled in 2023. We’ve seen strong growth since the arrival of Nicolas Di Felice and this continued in 2023, despite a more difficult context. 

It’s pretty amazing to see that it touches several generations, which is quite rare and chimes with the fact that Courrèges has an incredibly rich past and has managed to reach people across the world, even in markets where we don’t have a direct presence. There’s an incredible buzz around the brand in Brazil and Mexico, due to the history of the house.

WWD: I imagine growth will slow slightly this year given the global downturn? 

A.D.M.: We’re fortunate to enjoy great momentum. Having said that, it’s not easy to double your revenues every year. That’s hard to keep up, so we’ll focus on consistency and we’ll take stock next year.

WWD: What is your five-year target?

A.D.M.: We aim to make Courrèges a global brand with no limit to its growth ambition. We will try not to go too fast and to build something that is coherent and built on solid foundations, and which respects the design process.

I’m fortunate not to have a rigid and precise objective that would force us to chase unrealistic growth targets. There is strong demand for the brand. The values that carry Courrèges today are the same ones that propelled it to become a global brand in the ‘60s and ’70s. 

WWD: You just launched your new bag, the Holy. Could it become a key pillar for the house?

A.D.M.: We have high expectations for sales because I think it’s a beautiful bag and it reflects our ambition for the rapidly growing accessories segment.

It has this elegance and geometry of Courrèges which feels spot-on and is also in line with what Nicolas is doing with the ready-to-wear. 

I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a success, but we are not hinging everything on this bag becoming an “It” bag. I think the success of a bag is something that develops over time as well.

WWD: What percentage of revenues do accessories represent at Courrèges?

A.D.M.: We don’t share the breakdown, but it has grown tremendously alongside menswear.

There is no target for reaching a specific percentage of sales with accessories. We’re trying to build a consistent offer without forcing things, and to expand the brand vocabulary. 

WWD: What is the price positioning of the Holy bag?

A.D.M.: Depending on the material, its starting price is between 790 euros and 1,290 euros. It comes in different sizes. It’s a price point that reflects our brand positioning and makes a lot of sense in terms of the quality and the look of the bag.

WWD: Has your price positioning evolved since you took over?

A.D.M.: There hasn’t been any evolution.

Courrèges is a brand that represents a new luxury that is defined not just by price, but really by know-how and quality. There are pieces that cost 3,000 euros because they’re worth it.

It’s a brand that allows for a lot of price elasticity because we have a very diverse customer base that touches a lot of different generations. 

Nicolas often says that he wants his collections to be worn in the street, and that’s what drove the success of Courrèges originally.

If you want to reach younger customers, you also have to offer some products that are a little more affordable.

WWD: What role does e-commerce play in this strategy?

A.D.M.: E-commerce is very important because it allows us to reach a global customer base that wants to buy the brand. It’s the fastest-growing retail segment. 

WWD: What proportion do you handle internally, and what proportion with partners like Tmall?

A.D.M.: Our e-commerce is 100 percent handled internally and Tmall is a sales platform, so it does not account for a major part of our revenues today. 

WWD: What impact, if any, have recent events at Farfetch had on your business?

A.D.M.: We are not very exposed to Farfetch today. Clearly, it has implied some changes, especially for our wholesale partners, some of whom were quite dependent on Farfetch. It’s not the case for us. It illustrates the fact that there are big shifts in online shopping behavior, but Courrèges is not strongly impacted by that. 

WWD: What is the importance of perfumes in your business model?

A.D.M.: We manage our fragrance division ourselves and it’s increasingly important, because it’s an accessible product category.

It was at the heart of our brand revival strategy, so we’re seeing growth in that segment too. That’s particularly the case in China, where we’re seeing strong demand because the new generation of Chinese consumers are embracing the use of perfumes.

Here again, there is no precise target in terms of the sales mix. 

WWD: Could you expand into skin care or color cosmetics, either on your own or with licensees?

A.D.M.: I can’t comment at this stage. The category is still quite new, so we don’t want to jump the gun. But once again, the potential of Courrèges is unlimited, so anything is possible.