Koché’s Christelle Kocher Is Collaborating With Nike
Koché x Nike gallery
Christelle Kocher collaborated with the Paris Saint Germain football team for her Spring 2018 Koché collection, splicing together their jerseys with Chantilly lace to create patchwork dresses. Sport couture hybrids, they were colorful, fluid, and fabulous, some of the most memorable frocks of that season, and like many of her designs influential in the wider industry. At the time I wrote, “manipulating and expanding on these ideas is where her potential lies.” Well, with apologies to Paris SG, the Koché designer has landed a much bigger partner for Fall 2019. At her show today, she’ll reveal 11 new looks that she’s made with Nike.
That Spring 2018 reference wasn’t random. As a child Kocher played football. “Like fashion,” she said, “I see sport as a platform for positive change. My work with Nike has been inspired by community through the lens of sport. I played a lot of different sports growing up and learned about teamwork, unity, and of being stronger together in the pursuit of common goals.” Kocher was on the advance team for fashion’s recent awakening around inclusivity; since the earliest days of her line, she’s championed a street-casting concept, booking friends from the “real Paris” for her shows, and holding them in arrondisements way beyond the 1st and 2nd.
The collaboration is timed to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which is being hosted by France this June. “It’s exciting that our city will be the center of the sports world this summer between the French Open and the Women’s World Cup,” Kocher told Vogue. “I’m excited to see the global community come together with sport.” Nike has ongoing collaborations with women designers including Yoon Ahn of Ambush, Martine Rose, and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons. The company has also partnered with Chitose Abe of Sacai. Go team Koché!
