Fashion

Upcoming Jean-Paul Gaultier fashion show to be his last


French designer Jean-Paul Gaultier said Friday
that his next Paris haute couture fashion show will be his last.
The flamboyant creator said he would be bowing out Wednesday with a big
party to mark his 50 years in the business after his latest collection hits
the catwalk.

His brand told AFP that his high-end fashion and perfume business would
live on, but that Gaultier was stepping back from designing clothes himself.
“Rest assured haute couture will continue with a new concept,” said the
designer, who famously invented the “man skirt” and put Madonna in a conical
bra.

The eternal enfant terrible dropped the bombshell in a typically jokey
video message, shot as if he was giving an exclusive interview to a reporter
over the phone.

Reclining on a chaise longue, he whispered, “Now I am going to give you a
scoop. It will be my last couture show. You have to come, you can’t miss
that… but, but, but, I assure you, Gaultier Paris will go on, the haute
couture will continue.
“I have a new concept. I will tell you about it later, all the little
secrets. To be continued! Kisses, kisses.”

67 year-old ready-to-wear turned couture designer to retire

Gaultier, 67, stopped designing ready-to-wear clothes in 2015 to
concentrate on haute couture — extravagant handmade clothes which only the
world’s richest women can afford.

But as late as last year the maverick insisted that he had no intention
of
hanging up his scissors — although he despaired of animal rights activists
pressuring him to stop using furs.
“I really like the feel of fur,” he told AFP, as he confessed that he was
wavering about dropping furs from his shows.
“We are in an age when there is too much of everything, so we shouldn’t
be
killing animals. I have a charming little pussy, and I love animals, though
I
draw the line at crocodiles,” he said.

While his couture business owned by the Catalan luxury conglomerate Puig
was never a huge money maker, his perfumes — often featuring his impossibly
handsome sailors — continue to be bestsellers.
A child fashion prodigy, Gaultier said he starting by making showgirl
outfits for his teddy bear.

Former Pierre Cardin assistant rises to fame in the 80s

He was personal assistant to French fashion magnate Pierre Cardin at 18,
and rose to fame in the 1980s alongside designers like Thierry Mugler when
the
Paris fashion scene was at its most decadent.

Gaultier then carved out a parallel television career as the co-presenter
of a cheeky series, “Eurotrash”.
He was also the industry’s jester in chief. In a world riddled with
snobbery and pretension, he had the common touch — poking fun at himself
and
fashion’s myriad follies.

In 2018, he staged his own hit cabaret show based loosely on his life
story
called “Fashion Freak Show”, at the Folies Bergere theatre in Paris.
The Guardian hailed it as “a fabulous fiesta of fabric and flesh” when it
transferred to London last year.

It included a key moment that was to change his life — the first time he
laid eyes on a corset in his grandmother’s wardrobe.
He traced his fascination to corsetry and bondage to that moment — and
both would be recurring motifs in a career also replete with leather togas
and
tutus, feathers and all sorts of outsiders and freaks.

Hugely-loved within the fashion world, Gaultier pioneered using
plus-sized
models and welcomed “all shapes sizes and sexualities” on his catwalk.
A spokeswoman for his brand told AFP the designer would be back, but like
the veteran Japanese creator Kenzo — who has moved into interior design —
it
would be in other areas.(AFP)

Photo : Jean-Paul Gaultier AW19, Catwalkpictures



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