Jean Paul Gaultier (; born 24 April 1952)
is a French
haute couture and
prêt-à-porter fashion designer. He is described as an "
enfant terrible" of the fashion industry and is known for his unconventional designs with motifs including
corsets,
marinière
A ''marinière'' (), or ''tricot rayé'' (; ), is a cotton long-sleeved shirt with horizontal blue and white stripes. Characteristically worn by quartermasters and seamen in the French Navy, it has become a staple in civilian French fashion a ...
s, and
tin cans. Gaultier founded his self-titled fashion label in 1982, and expanded with a line of
fragrances in 1993. He was the creative director for French luxury house
Hermès
Hermès International S.A., or simply Hermès ( , ), is a French luxury design house established in 1837. It specializes in leather goods, lifestyle accessories, home furnishings, perfumery, jewelry, watches and ready-to-wear. Its logo, sinc ...
from 2003 to 2010, and retired following his 50th-anniversary haute couture show during
Paris Fashion Week in January 2020.
Aside from his work in the fashion industry, Gaultier co-presented the first seven series of the television series ''
Eurotrash'' with
Antoine de Caunes
Antoine de Caunes (born 1 December 1953) is a French television presenter, actor, writer and film director. He is the son of two prominent French personalities, television journalist-reporter Georges de Caunes and television announcer Jacqueline ...
from 1993–1997.
Biography
Early life
Gaultier grew up in a suburb of Paris. His mother was a clerk and his father an accountant. It was his maternal grandmother, Marie Garrabe, who introduced him to the world of fashion.
He never received formal training as a designer. Instead, he began to send sketches to famous couture stylists at an early age.
Pierre Cardin was impressed by his talent and hired him as an assistant in 1970.
Then he worked with Jacques Esterel in 1971 and
Jean Patou later that year again worked for Cardin managing the Pierre Cardin boutique in
Manila for a year until 1974.
Despite Gaultier's youth, Cardin sent him to Manila to manage the local office.
Imelda Marcos was one of his clients. He found himself on a "no leave" list and had to pretend to have a family emergency in order to leave. He never returned.
Fashion career
Gaultier's first individual collection was released in 1976.
Although most people found his designs decadent at the time, fashion editors, notably Melka Tréanton of ''
Elle'', Claude Brouet and Catherine Lardeur of French ''
Marie Claire'', were impressed by his creativity and mastery of tailoring, and later launched his career. In 1980, he designed women's dresses out of plastic trash bags. Gaultier founded his eponymous fashion label in 1982.
His 1983 collection "Boy Toy" relaunched the
marinière
A ''marinière'' (), or ''tricot rayé'' (; ), is a cotton long-sleeved shirt with horizontal blue and white stripes. Characteristically worn by quartermasters and seamen in the French Navy, it has become a staple in civilian French fashion a ...
for men. His garments were on sale at
Bergdorf Goodman
Bergdorf Goodman Inc. is a luxury department store based on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York. The company was founded in 1899 by Herman Bergdorf and was later owned and managed by Edwin Goodman, and later his son, Andrew Goodman.
...
in New York as soon as 1984, and already lauded by
Dawn Mello and
Polly Allen Mellen. The term "Gaultiered" was coined to describe the classic pieces that were reinterpreted by the designer.
During the 1984 Fall London and Paris shows, Jean Paul Gaultier introduced his line of skirts for men (actually
kilts), a breakthrough in men's fashion that stirred a bit of controversy.
In 1984 he also introduced the iconic women's corset with cone bra. Gaultier has also worked in close collaboration with
Wolford Hosiery.
By 1985, his company made $50 million in sales worldwide.
In the 1985 movie ''
Desperately Seeking Susan'', Madonna wore a skirt with men's suspenders she had bought from Gaultier.
Besides his ready-to-wear collection, in 1988 Gaultier expanded his brand to include the label Junior Gaultier, a lower-priced line of products.
The Junior Gaultier outfit was selected by
Jeff Banks as the
Dress of the Year.
In 1988, he also recorded the music video ''How to do that''. At the end of the 1980s he invented a new look for the French accordionist
Yvette Horner which relaunched her career. In 1990, he designed Madonna's clothes for her
Blond Ambition World Tour.
At the end of the 1980s, Gaultier suffered some personal losses, and in 1990 his boyfriend and business partner, Francis Menuge, died of AIDS-related causes.
It is also around that time that he decided to tone down his showmanship and started to plan more intimate events.
Gaultier launched a line of
fragrances (Classique) in 1993.
The Junior Gaultier label was replaced in 1994 with JPG by Gaultier, a unisex collection that followed the designer's idea of fluidity of the sexes. Gaultier Jean's, a similar line consisting mainly of denim and more simply styled garments with a heavy street influence, followed in 1992, which was then replaced with Jean's Paul Gaultier from 2004 to 2008. Junior Gaultier's name was reused in 2009 for the launching of the child's wear, to be completed with a Baby Line in 2011.
In 1998, Jean Paul Gaultier's company generated €12.9 million ($13.2 million) in sales. In 1999,
Hermès
Hermès International S.A., or simply Hermès ( , ), is a French luxury design house established in 1837. It specializes in leather goods, lifestyle accessories, home furnishings, perfumery, jewelry, watches and ready-to-wear. Its logo, sinc ...
acquired 35% of Gaultier's label for 150 million francs ($23 million). Jean Paul Gaultier owned 93% of his company prior to this deal. In 2002, Gaultier's label opened its first fully-fledged stand-alone store.
Then, from 2003 to 2010, Gaultier was the creative director of Hermès
where he succeeded
Martin Margiela. Hermès later increased its stake in Jean Paul Gaultier to 45%.
By 2008, 40 Jean Paul Gaultier stores opened worldwide.
He sponsored the 2003–04 exhibit in the Costume Institute of New York's
Metropolitan Museum of Art entitled "Braveheart: Men in Skirts", which showed designs by
Dries van Noten,
Vivienne Westwood, and
Rudi Gernreich in addition to Gaultier's in order to examine "designers and individuals who have appropriated the skirt as a means of injecting novelty into male fashion, as a means of transgressing moral and social codes, and as a means of redefining an ideal masculinity."
He also designed some furniture for the French furniture brand
Roche Bobois
Roche Bobois is a French company that designs and retails furniture and home accessories.
History
In 1960, having become acquainted at the Copenhagen Furniture Fair, Philippe and François Roche joined forces with Jean-Claude and Patrick Ch ...
and an
Evian
Evian ( , ; , stylized as evian) is a French company that bottles and commercialises mineral water from several sources near Évian-les-Bains, on the south shore of Lake Geneva. It produces over 2 billion plastic bottles per year.
Today, Evi ...
bottle in 2008. Gaultier's spring 2009 couture was influenced by the visual style of singer
Klaus Nomi, and he used Nomi's recording of "Cold Song" in his runway show.
In 2011, the
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in collaboration with the Maison Jean Paul Gaultier organized a retrospective exhibit, "The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk." That exhibit is on tour with venues at the
Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design (''Arkitektur- och designcentrum'', ArkDes) in Stockholm,
the
Brooklyn Museum in New York City, the
Barbican Centre in London, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, and the
Grand Palais in Paris. The exhibition in Paris, which took place from April to August 2015, was the subject of a documentary called ''Jean Paul Gaultier at the Grand Palais'' aired exclusively on
Eurochannel
Eurochannel is a world television channel focused on European culture and lifestyle through movies, series and other programs dedicated to European culture. Eurochannel broadcasts in original audio with subtitles in English, Spanish and Portugu ...
. In 2012, he participated in the Cali ExpoShow in
Cali (
Colombia), showing his extensive collection of perfumes and all classic clothes.
Up until 2014, he designed for three collections: his own couture and ready-to-wear lines, for both men and women. At the spring/summer 2015 show he announced that he was closing the ready-to-wear labels to focus on haute couture. In 2016, he designed more than 500 costumes for the revue THE ONE Grand Show at
Friedrichstadt-Palast Berlin.
In 2018, he staged a cabaret show that was loosely based on his life called "Fashion Freak Show" which took place at the
Folies Bergere
Folies () is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.
Geography
Folies is situated on the D329 road, some southeast of Amiens.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Somme department
The following is a list ...
theater in Paris.
In 2019, Gaultier collaborated with the
New York streetwear brand
Supreme.
He announced on 17 January 2020 that his next Paris haute couture fashion show would be his last and that he was retiring from the runway.
Music and TV career
In 1988, Gaultier released a dance single titled "How To Do That" on Fontana Records, from which came one of the first ever "single title" remix albums, ''Aow Tou Dou Zat'', on Mercury Records. The album includes mixes by
Norman Cook,
J. J. Jeczalik,
George Shilling,
Mark Saunders, Latin Rascals, David Dorrell, Tim Atkins, Carl Atkins, and
Kurtis Mantronik. It was co-written and produced by
Tony Mansfield
Tony Mansfield (born 19 January 1955) is an English songwriter, musician and record producer.
Early work
Mansfield was born in Wimbledon, London, and became best known as the main songwriter/producer for New Musik, a synthpop band that perfo ...
, and video directed by
Jean-Baptiste Mondino. The album also featured a collaboration with accordion player
Yvette Horner.
Gaultier is known as Eurovision enthusiast, and since 1991, he's dressed several of France's entrants. For the
Eurovision Song Contest 2006, he dressed Greek entrant
Anna Vissi
Anna Vissi ( el, Άννα Βίσση, , ; born 20 December 1957), is a Greek Cypriot singer and songwriter. She studied music at conservatories and performed locally before moving to the professional scene in Athens, in 1973, where she signed ...
, where she performed on homesoil. He commentated on the final of the
2008 contest with
Julien Lepers
Julien Lepers (; whose real name is Ronan Gerval Lepers) is a French television and radio presenter, and a singer-songwriter, born on in Paris.
Biography
Early life
Son of the conductor Raymond Lepers and the singer Maria Rémusat, and ...
on
France Télévisions. He designed the dress that
Anggun wore as she represented
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
during the grand-finals of the
2012 edition held in
Baku,
Azerbaijan. In
Eurovision Song Contest 2013 he dressed the host
Petra Mede
Petra Maria Mede (; born 7 March 1970) is a Swedish comedian, dancer, actress and television presenter. She was born in Stockholm, and grew up in Gothenburg. Mede is known for her several roles in comic shows and as a television presenter. She is ...
.
Starting in 1993, he co-hosted the
Channel 4 programme ''
Eurotrash'' with
Antoine de Caunes
Antoine de Caunes (born 1 December 1953) is a French television presenter, actor, writer and film director. He is the son of two prominent French personalities, television journalist-reporter Georges de Caunes and television announcer Jacqueline ...
. Gaultier hosted the show until 1997.
In 2012, he was named as a member of the Jury for the Main Competition at the
2012 Cannes Film Festival. This was the first time a fashion designer was called to sit on a jury at the festival.
In 2022, he appeared with
Iris Mittenaere as a guest judge on ''
Drag Race France''.
Products
* Fashion labels:
** Jean Paul Gaultier
** Gaultier PARIS (couture collection)
** former JEAN'S Paul Gaultier
** former Eyewear Jean Paul Gaultier
** former Jean Paul Gaultier Argent.
* Women's fragrance lines:
**
Classique (1993): ''
List of flanker fragrances''
** Fragile (2000): Fragile Eau de Toilette (2001)
** Ma Dame (2008): Ma Dame Eau Fraiche (2009); Ma Dame Rose 'n Roll (2009); Ma Dame Eau de Parfum (2010); Ma Dame Eau Fraiche Summer 2010; Ma Dame It (2011)
** Scandal (2017): Scandal by Night (2018); Scandal a Paris (2019); So Scandal! (2020)
* Men's fragrance lines:
**
Le Male (1995): ''
List of flanker fragrances''
** Monsieur (2008)
** Kokorico (2011): Kokorico by Night (2012)
** Scandal Pour Homme (2021)
* Unisex fragrance lines:
** Gaultier² (2005): Gaultier² Eau d'Amour (2008)
The fragrance house includes women's, men's, and unisex fragrances; a number of
flanker fragrances have been released for each line.
Jean Paul Gaultier fragrances have been
licensed by
Puig since 1 January 2016, and were previously licensed by
Shiseido subsidiary Beauté Prestige International from 1991 through 31 December 2015. The BPI license was originally negotiated through 30 June 2016; however, Puig acquired the license for $79.2 million and paid $22.6 million for the early termination of the license. With this purchase, Puig now holds control of both the fashion and fragrance divisions of the Jean Paul Gaultier brand. The 1993 women's oriental floral
Classique and the 1995 men's oriental fougere
Le Male have been described by the brand as "flagship" products that "represent all the Jean Paul Gaultier values". Le Male was the top-selling men's fragrance in the
European Union in 2012, and holds a strong market position in Australia and the United States.
, the Classique, Le Male, and Scandal lines are in production.
Style
Jean Paul Gaultier's characteristic irreverent style dating from 1981 has led to his being known as the ''
enfant terrible'' of French fashion.
Many of Gaultier's subsequent collections have been based on street wear, focusing on popular culture, whereas others, particularly his
haute couture collections, are very formal, yet at the same time unusual and playful. Jean Paul Gaultier says he is inspired by the
baby boomers' TV culture,
and the street culture where audacity sometimes triggers new trends.
His main inspirations are the French popular culture, the mixing of types and genders,
sexual fetishism and futurist designs.
The advent of his haute couture line brought him massive success in 1997. Through this collection, he was able to freely express the scope and range of his aesthetic, drawing inspiration from radically divergent cultures, from Imperial India to
Hasidic Judaism.
Gaultier caused shock by using unconventional
models
A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure.
Models c ...
for his exhibitions, like older men and full-figured women, pierced and heavily tattooed models, and by playing with traditional gender roles in the shows. This earned him both criticism and enormous popularity.
The "
granny grey" hair colour trend is attributed to Gaultier, whose autumn/winter 2011 show featured models in grey
beehives. In the spring of 2015, his catwalk show at
Paris Fashion Week featured silver-haired models again, as did the shows of other fashion designers,
Chanel and
Gareth Pugh
Gareth Pugh (born 31 August 1981) is an English fashion designer["Gareth Pugh: Fashion Designer."](_blank) . The trend soon took off among celebrities and the general public.
Notable designs
*
Madonna: Gaultier produced sculptured costumes during the nineties, starting with her infamous
cone bra
The Wonderbra is a type of push-up underwire brassiere that gained worldwide prominence in the 1990s. Although the Wonderbra name was first trademarked in the U.S. in 1955, the brand was developed in Canada. Moses (Moe) Nadler, founder and majo ...
for her 1990
Blond Ambition World Tour, and the wardrobe for her 2006
Confessions Tour.
*
Björk: The Icelandic artist modeled for him in 1994, and appeared on this occasion in
Robert Altman's film ''
Prêt à Porter''.
*
Marilyn Manson:
Gaultier has designed some of the costumes and outfits, including for ''
The Golden Age of Grotesque
''The Golden Age of Grotesque'' is the fifth studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on May 7, 2003, by Nothing and Interscope Records, and was their first album to feature former KMFDM member Tim Sköld, who joined af ...
'' album.
*
Mylène Farmer
Mylène Jeanne Gautier (; born 12 September 1961), known professionally as Mylène Farmer (), is a Canadian-born French singer, songwriter, occasional actress, writer, and entrepreneur. Having sold more than 30 million records in France, she is ...
: In spring 2008 he signed a contract to be the fashion designer for her
tour in 2009.
*
Kerry Washington: Dress worn at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.
*
Marion Cotillard: He designed the white and silver mermaid dress she wore at the
80th Academy Awards in 2008 (
Oscar for her performance in ''
La Vie en Rose'').
*
Lady Gaga: VMAs red carpet in 2009.
*
Rihanna :
Grammys red carpet in 2011,
couture dress worn at the
American Music Awards in 2013.
*
Beyoncé: In the "Run The World (Girls)" music video in 2011.
*
Nicki Minaj.
*
Kylie Minogue: He designed the costumes for the international
KylieX2008 tour.
*
Leslie Cheung: Gaultier designed eight costumes for his last concert tour in 2000.
*
Nik Thakkar
Nik Thakkar is the non-binary multi-disciplinary recording artist known professionally as NEO 10Y.
Education and early career
NEO 10Y was born and raised in London, where he was classically trained in piano and vocals. He studied Law and Fren ...
: Gaultier created a digital first working with the artist and activist in 2013.
*
Kim Kardashian:
Grammys red carpet in 2015.
*
Katy Perry:
''Vanity Fair'' after-party in early 2017.
*
Solange Knowles: 2017 Glamour Women of the Year Awards in New York City.
Gallery
File:J P G på ArtDes 2013 6.jpg, Madonna's trademark corset with cone bra from the exhibition at the ArkDes, 2013
File:Jean-Paul Gaultier expo bustier.jpg, Gaultier's notoriety increased in the 1980s with several cone-breasted designs, similar to one worn on tour by Madonna.
File:Jean-Paul Gaultier bustier Montreal expo 2011.jpg, A bustier-style dress made of grass that is woven to resemble feathers
File:Jean-Paul Gaultier white lace mask.jpg, An iconoclastic white lace design combining a halo and mask similar to fetish bondage-wear
File:Mythical creations jEAN PAUL Gaultier0.jpg, Jean Paul Gaultier freak show
File:Jean-Paul Gaultier fashion freak show 2019.jpg, Designed by Jean Paul Gaultier for the fashion freak show 2019
File:Chest of drawers made from old suitcases, Jean Paul Gaultier 2013.jpg, Chest of drawers made from old suitcases made by Jean Paul Gaultier. From the exhibition "The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk", at the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design in Stockholm 2013.
File:Jean-Paul Gaultier inside out Montreal 2011.jpg, Designs resembling the human muscle and circulatory systems worn by Mylène Farmer (left) and torsolette, or " merry widow" undergarments (right)
File:Gaultier the fashion freak show 2019.jpg, Gaultier the fashion freak show
File:Gaultier the fashion freak show.jpg, Jean'Paul Gaultier (the fashion freak show)
Filmography
Gaultier designed the wardrobe for many motion pictures, including:
*
Luc Besson's ''
The Fifth Element''
*
Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar Caballero (; (often known simply as Almodóvar) born 25 September 1949) is a Spanish filmmaker. His films are marked by melodrama, irreverent humour, bold colour, glossy décor, quotations from popular culture, and complex narra ...
's ''
Kika'', ''
Bad Education'', and ''
The Skin I Live In
''The Skin I Live In'' ( es, link=no, La piel que habito) is a 2011 Spanish science fiction psychological thriller film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, starring Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes, Jan Cornet and Roberto Á ...
''
*
Peter Greenaway's ''
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover''
*
Marc Caro's and
Jean-Pierre Jeunet's ''
The City of Lost Children
''The City of Lost Children'' (french: La Cité des enfants perdus) is a 1995 science fantasy film directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, written by Jeunet and Gilles Adrien, and starring Ron Perlman. An international co-production of c ...
''
Personal life
Gaultier had always had an interest in fashion. In school, he found himself at odds with his classmates; though he didn't fit in, they nonetheless wanted him to do drawings for them.
Uneasy with his sexuality, he was reassured when he learnt that some of the iconic fashion designers were also gay or bisexual, as he wanted to work in fashion himself. He met his partner Francis Menuge, who helped him to get established and start running shows. Gaultier and Menuge both learned about AIDS during its advent, and both were tested. Menuge was HIV positive, and both Gaultier and Menuge's parents looked after him until his death from AIDS.
In recent years, Gaultier has focused less on fashion to wear, and more on haute couture and putting on shows.
[Jean Paul Gaultier: Freak and Chic (2018) Dircetor Yann L'Hénoret]
Notes
References
External links
*
Tous les défilés Jean-Paul Gaultier en images – Madame Figaro
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaultier, Jean Paul
1952 births
Living people
French fashion designers
Haute couture
High fashion brands
LGBT artists from France
LGBT fashion designers
Luxury brands
People from Val-de-Marne
Puig