Jean Paul Gaultier[lower-alpha 1] (French:[ʒɑ̃pɔlɡotje]; born 24 June 1952)[1] 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, marinières, and tin cans. Gaultier founded his eponymous fashion label in 1982, and expanded with a line of fragrances in 1993. He was the creative director for French luxury house Hermès from 2003 to 2010, and retired following his 50th-anniversary haute couture show during Paris Fashion Week in January 2020.[3]
Aside from his work in the fashion industry, Gaultier co-presented the first seven series of the television series Eurotrash with Antoine de Caunes 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.[4]
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.[5] 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.[4] 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. [6]
Fashion career
Gaultier's first individual collection was released in 1976.[5] 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.[7][8][9][10][11] In 1980, he designed women's dresses out of plastic trash bags.[12] Gaultier founded his eponymous fashion label in 1982.[13] His 1983 collection "Boy Toy" relaunched the marinière for men.[14] His garments were on sale at Bergdorf 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. [13] 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.[15] In 1984 he also introduced the iconic women's corset with cone bra.[16] Gaultier has also worked in close collaboration with Wolford Hosiery.[17][18]
By 1985, his company made $50 million in sales worldwide.[19] In the 1985 movie Desperately Seeking Susan, Madonna wore a skirt with men's suspenders she had bought from Gaultier.[20] Besides his ready-to-wear collection, in 1988 Gaultier expanded his brand to include the label Junior Gaultier, a lower-priced line of products.[21] The Junior Gaultier outfit was selected by Jeff Banks as the Dress of the Year.[22] In 1988, he also recorded the music video How to do that.[23] At the end of the 1980s he invented a new look for the French accordionist Yvette Horner which relaunched her career.[24] In 1990, he designed Madonna's clothes for her Blond Ambition World Tour.[21][25]
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.[26][21] It is also around that time that he decided to tone down his showmanship and started to plan more intimate events.[20]
Gaultier launched a line of fragrances (Classique) in 1993.[21] 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 acquired 35% of Gaultier's label for 150 million francs ($23 million). Jean Paul Gaultier owned 93% of his company prior to this deal.[27][28] In 2002, Gaultier's label opened its first fully-fledged stand-alone store.[29] Then, from 2003 to 2010, Gaultier was the creative director of Hermès[30] where he succeeded Martin Margiela.[31] Hermès later increased its stake in Jean Paul Gaultier to 45%.[30] By 2008, 40 Jean Paul Gaultier stores opened worldwide.[29]
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."[32][33] He also designed some furniture for the French furniture brand Roche Bobois[34] and an Evian bottle in 2008.[35] Gaultier's spring 2009 couture was influenced by the visual style of singer Klaus Nomi,[36] and he used Nomi's recording of "Cold Song" in his runway show.[37]
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."[38] That exhibit is on tour with venues at the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design (Arkitektur- och designcentrum, ArkDes) in Stockholm,[5] the Brooklyn Museum in New York City,[39] the Barbican Centre in London,[40] the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne,[41] 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.[42] In 2012, he participated in the Cali ExpoShow in Cali (Colombia), showing his extensive collection of perfumes and all classic clothes.[43]
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.[44] 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 theater in Paris.[45] In 2019, Gaultier collaborated with the New York streetwear brand Supreme.[46]
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.[45]
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.[47] 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, and video directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino.[48] The album also featured a collaboration with accordion player Yvette Horner.
In 2012, he was named as a member of the Jury for the Main Competition at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.[53] This was the first time a fashion designer was called to sit on a jury at the festival.[54]
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)
The fragrance house includes women's, men's, and unisex fragrances; a number of flanker fragrances have been released for each line.[56] 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;[57] however, Puig acquired the license for $79.2 million and paid $22.6 million for the early termination of the license.[58] With this purchase, Puig now holds control of both the fashion and fragrance divisions of the Jean Paul Gaultier brand.[59] 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".[60] 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.[61]
As of May2020[update], the Classique,[62] Le Male,[63] and Scandal lines are in production.[64]
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.[65] Jean Paul Gaultier says he is inspired by the baby boomers' TV culture,[19] and the street culture where audacity sometimes triggers new trends.[15] His main inspirations are French popular culture, the mixing of types and genders, sexual fetishism and futurist designs.[66]
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.[67]
Gaultier caused shock by using unconventional models for his exhibitions, like older men and fat women, pierced and heavily tattooed models, and by playing with traditional gender roles in the shows. This earned him both criticism and enormous popularity.[5] 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. The trend soon took off among celebrities and the general public.[68]
Madonna's trademark corset with cone bra from the exhibition at the ArkDes, 2013
Gaultier's notoriety increased in the 1980s with several cone-breasted designs, similar to one worn on tour by Madonna.
A bustier-style dress made of grass that is woven to resemble feathers
An iconoclastic white lace design combining a halo and mask similar to fetish bondage-wear
Jean Paul Gaultier freak show
Designed by Jean Paul Gaultier for the fashion freak show 2019
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.
Designs resembling the human muscle and circulatory systems worn by Mylène Farmer (left) and torsolette, or "merry widow" undergarments (right)
Gaultier had always had an interest in fashion. In school, he found himself at odds with his classmates; though he did not 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 ready to wear, and more on haute couture and putting on shows.[81]
Notes
↑ His first name is sometimes punctuated with a hyphen as Jean-Paul Gaultier.[1]
Related Research Articles
Paul Poiret was a French fashion designer, a master couturier during the first two decades of the 20th century. He was the founder of his namesake haute couture house.
Jean Patou was a French fashion designer, and founder of the Jean Patou brand.
Hermès International S.A. is a French luxury design house established on June 15th 1837. It specializes in leather goods, lifestyle accessories, home furnishings, perfumery, jewelry, watches and ready-to-wear. Since the 1950s, its logo has been a depiction of a ducal horse-drawn carriage.
Elie Saab is a Lebanese fashion designer.
Manfred Thierry Mugler was a French fashion designer, creative director and creative adviser of Mugler. In the 1970s, Mugler launched his eponymous fashion house; and quickly rose to prominence in the following decades for his avant-garde, architectural, hyperfeminine and theatrical approach to haute couture. He was one of the first designers to champion diversity in his runway shows, which often tackled racism and ageism, and incorporated non-traditional models such as drag queens, porn stars, and transgender women. In 2002, he retired from the brand, and returned in 2013 as the creative adviser.
Julien Fournié is a French fashion designer and CEO of his own eponymous haute couture company founded in the summer of 2009. Previously, he was the last creative director of the Paris-based haute couture fashion house Torrente. In 2008, he was named creative director for womenswear, menswear and accessories at Ramosport.
Guy Laroche was a French fashion designer and founder of the eponymous company.
Riccardo Tisci is an Italian fashion designer. He studied in Italy at the Design Istituto d’Arte Applicata in Cantù until the age of 17, and then graduated from London's Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 1999. In 2005, Tisci was creative director for Givenchy Women's haute couture and ready-to-wear lines. In May 2008 he was additionally menswear and accessories designer of the Givenchy men's division. In March 2018, he was appointed chief creative officer of Burberry, succeeding Christopher Bailey.
Nina Ricci is a fashion house founded by Maria "Nina" Ricci and her son Robert in Paris in 1932, and owned by the Spanish beauty and fashion group Puig since 1998.
Haute couture is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design. The term haute couture is French, "haute" meaning "high" or "elegant," and "couture" translating to "sewing" or "dressmaking." The term haute couture generally refers to a specific type of upper garment common in Europe during the 16th to the 18th century, or to the upper portion of a modern dress to distinguish it from the skirt and sleeves. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Paris became the centre of a growing industry that focused on making outfits from high-quality, expensive, often unusual fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable of sewers—often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques. Couture translates literally from French as "dressmaking", sewing, or needlework and is also used as a common abbreviation of haute couture and can often refer to the same thing in spirit.
Anna Selezneva is a Russian fashion model who started her career in 2007. Selezneva became known for her high cheekbones and was discovered in 2007 at a McDonald's in Moscow. Selezneva has appeared in campaigns for Blumarine, Ralph Lauren, Versace.
François Lesage was a French couture embroiderer. Lesage was globally known in the art of embroidery and worked for the largest fashion and haute couture houses. His atelier is now part of Chanel through the company's subsidiary, Paraffection.
Maxime Simoens is a French designer who has been the artistic director of Paule Ka since 2019. He is an "invited member" of the Chamber of Parisian Couture union.
Puig Brands, S.A. is a Spanish fashion and fragrance company founded in 1914 by Antonio Puig Castelló in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, and still managed by the Puig family.
The House of Worth was a French fashion house that specialized in haute couture, ready-to-wear clothes, and perfumes. It was founded in 1858 by English designer Charles Frederick Worth. It continued to operate under his descendants until 1952 and closed in 1956. The House of Worth fashion brand was revived in 1999.
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 and, especially outside France, this kind of striped garment is often part of the stereotypical image of a French person. It is also known as a Breton shirt, as many sailors in the French Navy were from Brittany.
Alexandre Vauthier is a French haute couture fashion designer.
Maison Margiela, formerly Maison Martin Margiela, is a French luxury fashion house founded by Belgian designer Martin Margiela and Jenny Meirens in 1988 and headquartered in Paris. The house produces both haute couture-inspired artisanal collections and ready-to-wear collections, with the former influencing the designs of the latter. Product lines include womenswear, menswear, jewellery, footwear, accessories, leather goods, perfumes and household goods. Known for deconstructive and avant-garde designs with unconventional materials, Maison Margiela has traditionally held live shows in unusual settings, for example empty metro stations and street corners. Models' faces are often obscured by fabric or long hair to direct attention to the clothes and design. Margiela resigned as creative designer in 2009 and John Galliano was appointed to the role in 2014.
Classique is a women's fragrance created by Jacques Cavallier for Jean Paul Gaultier in 1993. It has been manufactured by Puig since 2016, and was previously manufactured by Shiseido subsidiary Beauté Prestige International from 1995 until 2015. The men's fragrance Le Male was developed as a counterpart to Classique, and was introduced in 1995.
The Ivory Jean Paul Gaultier dress of Marion Cotillard refers to the custom white and silver mermaid dress worn by Marion Cotillard at the 80th Academy Awards on 24 February 2008. It was designed by Jean Paul Gaultier and custom made for Cotillard. A golden version of the dress was presented on the catwalk at Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring/Summer 2008 Couture Show during Paris Fashion Week on 23 January 2008.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
