Back to the Future: Courrèges

The Original With his A-line vinyl dresses and lunarlike accessories, André Courrèges blasted onto the fashion scene in the 1960s, shocking haute couture’s bourgeois clients. Optimistic and out-of-this-world, his designs—which drew daring fashionistas like Françoise Hardy, Lee Radziwill, and Marisa Berenson—soon became some of the most copied on the planet.

Photograph by Getty Images.

The Return In 2011, former Young & Rubicam execs Jacques Bungert and Frédéric Torloting bought the rights to the name from André and his wife, Coqueline. Since then, they have been staging its comeback, introducing a line of clean-cut Courrèges-inspired basics (as well as reissued classics like the cropped PVC jacket) and a makeup collection with Estée Lauder, all available in a pop-up store, which opened in Paris in October. A Courrèges electric car is in the works.

Courtesy of the designer.

The Reinterpretation Courrèges’s ideas were so forward-thinking that a half-century later, they are still inspiring designers. From the sleek, graphic dresses at Carven to the spherical PVC shapes at Junya Watanabe, the futuristic house is all the rage in 2015.

Junya Watanabe Spring 2015. Photograph by Getty Images.