The Looks of Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2020 in Paris started the new millennium on a happy note.
His spring 2000 couture collection, presented at the former home of the artist and art patron Marie-Laure de Noailles, was colorful and intricately worked.
The brand’s eponymous designer announced the news via social media on Friday, 17 January: the maison’s next couture show, scheduled for 22 January, will celebrate the couturier’s 50th anniversary in fashion, but it will also be his last.
The maison, which has belonged to Spanish group Puig – initially a perfume specialist – since 2011, already called time on its ready-to-wear activities, and therefore on the line’s runway shows, in 2014. From then on the label has only presented the couture shows so dear to its founder, which have featured on the official Paris calendar since 1997.
Gaultier borrowed elements from all over, but this season he was particularly indebted to Indian clothing traditions. This wasn’t a one-note costume show, however. The opening look was a trench with an open back that turned into a maillot, which somehow worked, at least on the runway. Forward march through the lineup and there was also a multicolored tulle gown worked into a camouflage pattern. Not quite the thing for the shooting range, but marvelously constructed.
Tiered embellished skirts that could be worn, as Gaultier showed them, with a button-down shirt were especially crowd pleasing.
“Gaultier Paris will continue, Haute Couture will continue, I have a new concept,”
Jean Paul Gaultier
Gaultier, who has always had a foot – maybe even two – in the world of show business, has therefore taken another step back from the traditional fashion calendar. His brand, whose operations are now focused principally on its range of perfumes, will not, however, go on without him and his strong public image.
The designer, who continues in his role as the label’s creative director, was busy organising a successful eight-month run of his revue, Fashion Freak Show, at the Folies Bergères, in Paris, until June of last year, a show which attracted some 250,000 spectators.
For his last show, Jean Paul Gaultier organized a “spontaneous cast” consisting only of his fans.
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This is not the first time that a fashion designer made a surprise! In 2014, the designer announced that he would complete his finished clothing line to devote himself to high fashion.
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“The world of finished clothes has changed a lot. Commercial constraints and the ever-accelerating pace of collections no longer provide the freedom or time needed to attract resources and innovation, ”the designer told Women Wear Daily.
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In 2019 Jean Paul Gaultier surprised everyone again by creating an unprecedented show at the Foley Berger “The Fashion Freak Show”. A childhood dream, he said.
Jean-Paul Gaultier belongs to a generation of iconic creators from another – perhaps even a bygone era.
There is no doubt that Jean-Paul Gaultier always knew how to adhere to the needs of youth – of his time. True, it is not yet known whether his new projects will appeal to the new generation.
À bientôt Monsieur Jean-Paul Gaultier.
