Duran Lantink has managed to turn his signature strangeness into a mischievous force at Jean Paul Gaultier. His inflated bodies, extraterrestrial protrusions, and distorted silhouettes no longer read as one-off shock tactics, but rather as part of a broader vision for what the brand can become.
To truly appreciate it, you have to momentarily set aside everything you think you know about Gaultier and allow yourself to engage with Lantink’s methodology of seeing the bod – one that leans more toward the abstract than the figurative. He drew inspiration from the image of Marlene Dietrich holding a whip, which sparked the idea of “Madame Masculinity.” And when you think about it, is there anything more JPG?
Where Gaultier once disrupted the anatomical canon through hyper-corsetry, Lantink does so with conical shoulder lines and padded protuberances. There is a distinctly commanding presence in these constructed, almost alien postures. The former delighted in reworking the tropes of historical dress, and the latter pushes panniered forms to new extremes, creating gowns that appear to float through space, as if guided by an invisible puppeteer.
Lantink’s vision for the brand may not resonate with everyone, but it’s worth remembering that Gaultier himself was once scorned – and misunderstood – by critics. Today, he is a legend. Time will tell whether Duran’s ideas are ahead of their time.
Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Duran Lantink’s debut for Jean Paul Gaultier is a collection I’m still making up my mind about. For me, the core of the Gaultier brand has been utterly diffused by the revolving door of guest designers, each coming in for a single couture collection every six months. At this point, the brand could be almost anything.
On one hand, I think it was a wise choice for Duran not to revive Jean Paul’s archives too literally. On the other, this collection revealed that his own repertoire still feels somewhat limited. It could just as easily have been a Duran Lantink show – and honestly, it might have made more sense that way. The razor-sharp cut-outs, the “Lumps and Bumps”-inspired silhouette manipulations, the op-art stripes, the bodysuits printed with a haired male corpse – it’s all Duran through and through, like it or not. But we’ve already seen most of these ideas play out, in slightly different variations, within his own brand. READ MY FULL REVIEW HERE.
Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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The rather mild haute couture week in Paris suddenly heated up near its end, all thanks to Nicolas Di Felice‘s guest collection for Jean Paul Gaultier. It was absolutely refreshing to see the designer outside the context of Courrèges, and with the tools of couture in his hands. The French enfant terrible of fashion made a strong impression on the Belgian designer when he was a teen: “for me and for so many queer, different people from the countryside – from everywhere in the world – he represented Paris, a city where everything is possible. He was really the first one to celebrate different people. Everybody remembers this about him and it’s a good thing, because he actually did it.” The collection told a story about a Paris arriviste, who wears covered up clothes: jackets and dresses with long sleeves, long skirts, and necklines that climb up the face. Slowly, as the show progressed, the head emerged, then the shoulders, and by the end, dresses were peeling off the hips and hands were tucked into the gaps in the fabric in an erotic gesture. The motif of adaptability-to-the-body returned throughout the collection, and it was masterfully applied in a gorgeous slip dress that was worn undone to the waist, exposing a sleeveless shell underneath on which hooks-and-eyes were applied like studs. Di Felice chose to reference Gaultier’s subtler moments, especially his precise technique of cut and sharp, yet feminine tailoring. Everything synced so well. Now imagine Di Felice do haute couture at Courrèges!
Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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When Jean Paul Gaultier announced Simone Rocha as the guest designer for the spring-summer 2024 haute couture collection, it was clear that this unexpected match would result in an intriguing dialogue between Parisian artisanship and the Irish designer’s idiosyncratic take on femininity. The way Rocha interpreted the iconic JPG cone-bra into thorn-shaped protrusions signaled that she, unlike the previous guest creatives, will take a closer look at the couturier’s interest in the female body. This took her to the idea of playing with contrasts of couture: the tension between restraint and fragility. “His love of the breast and the hip and the female form – exploring that and harnessing it,” the designer said, explaining all the skirts and gowns buffeted with crinoline panniers and bustles. Corseting, another Gaultier landmark signature, seemed to be Rocha’s favorite element to play with. The designer treated the corset “as a security and this kind of second skin on the body.” The tattoo prints earned certain pagan mysticism in her hands, something I always love about her London shows. Meanwhile Breton stripes were represented by navy ribbons tied into bows and tacked loosely to illusion tulle, which also appeared on offbeat padded underpants. This was definitely a noteworthy fashion experiment to unpack.
Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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