Drew Henry at home in Paris. Photo: Hugo Bouteyre Save Story Save this story Save Story Save this story After years working behind the scenes at Céline, JW Anderson, Phoebe Philo, and Burberry, Drew Henry will take a bow for the first time as Courrèges’s artistic director. And while the SS26 season was explosive , with a dozen new designers taking the creative helm at different houses, there are only two debuts in Paris this season , Courrèges and Carven, which means all eyes are on them.
“Of course I am stressed. Don’t you see it? But you only get one first show, so I’m really excited for it,” he says, sitting in his office on the fifth floor of Rue François-Ier — the same space that André and Coqueline Courrèges, who co-founded the house in 1961, used to occupy.
The mirrored walls make you feel as though you’re inside a funfair attraction. “It’s not easy to constantly see so much of yourself, from every angle. That’s why I put up a few photos on the walls,” he says with a laugh. Henry is tall and slender with a piercing gaze and blue-gray eyes. He wears gray pants, a shirt, and black loafers — a look that would be almost ascetic if he wasn’t also wearing a grey Corona beer cap. “I never take it off, partly because I don’t have any hair, but also because you shouldn’t take yourself too seriously.”
Known for his ambition and talent, Henry is approaching a defining moment in his career. “I’ve always wanted to become an artistic director, but I never really wanted to have my own brand. I was always much more interested in working on projects, bringing my vision to stories,” he says.
When Henry was appointed, many pointed to the number of designers who had worked under Philo and gone on to hold top positions at other major fashion houses. Asked what he learned most from the respected designer, he pauses before offering a single word: “integrity.” Each experience, he adds, “taught me different things that are complementary.” Before moving to Paris to join Courrèges, he was senior design director at Burberry. But he doesn’t want to dwell on his résumé, impeccable though it may be.
He was born in Witbank, South Africa, to British and Irish parents. “When I was a child, we moved around a lot in South Africa and Botswana because of my father’s job. I wasn’t really attached to houses or cities. I was adaptable, and when you are adaptable, you like to observe people.“
As a teenager, he watched Fashion TV and bought fashion magazines. “In South Africa, they were four months late, but I was just happy to have them,” he recalls. His family didn’t understand where his passion came from, but it was clear that it was the career he wanted to pursue. He began his fashion education at LISOF in Johannesburg, a technical school specializing in pattern-cutting and garment construction.
At 20, he moved to London to study at Central Saint Martins, enrolling on the BA Fashion Design and Marketing course in 2008 before continuing on to the MA. He graduated in 2014 under Louise Wilson. Grace Wales Bonner and Daniel Lee were also studying at Central Saint Martins around that time.
What drew Drew to Courrèges? (Yes, we had to make the pun.) “I have always had references from the house in mind. Diving into the archives, I was struck by how colorful this brand is. Its soul is something optimistic. There’s so much joy, playfulness, but also a strong sense of sentimentality. People come up to me and tell me that their mother got married in Courrèges,” he says.…