What I love most about Duran Lantink‘s debut haute couture collection for Jean Paul Gaultier is that it doesn’t seek approval. It’s unapologetically cocky- and fashion has become strangely afraid of cockiness lately. More importantly, it makes you believe that Lantink might just be the designer to reinvent the wheel – or at the very least, come up with a piece of clothing you’ve genuinely never seen before. He’s certainly on that path.

The weirdness and abstractness of his couture prove he’s no longer just the guy fascinated by Rei Kawakubo’s lumps and bumps, churning out inflated silhouettes (although he refines them here into something even more otherworldly – and delightfully bouncy). His understanding of silhouette and texture extends far beyond that, allowing him to experiment with remarkable confidence.

Looking at the collection, you stop wondering whether it fits within the Jean Paul Gaultier universe. Somehow, the internally corseted, sideways-melted body carapace worn by Leon Dame, feather-covered tubes knotted into a dress, or those enormous ball gowns wrapped in Versailles brocade all feel unmistakably enfant terrible. I suspect Gaultier himself wanted a successor who wouldn’t treat the archives as sacred scripture, but would think wildly outside the box – and reinvent. Reinvention has always been the designer’s ethos, and Duran understands that instinctively.

This couture season has been a rather safe one, with a few highs and plenty of middling moments along the way. Then Lantink’s Jean Paul Gaultier came along, changed the trajectory, and spiced things up. More than anything, it left me eager to see what else emerges from that brilliantly fearless mind.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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