Fashion Legend Jean Paul Gaultier Bids Adieu To The Fashion Culture
Paris Fashion Week 2020 has given the year a new level of excitement and an all-in-one experience along with the biggest news of fashion culture.
Iconic French fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier bids goodbye and takes a step down from the fashion industry and fashion culture. The 67-year old couturier puts up his last runway show in Paris on 22nd January 2020, after 50 years of remarkable creations.
Did anyone feel like the end of an era???
About Jean Paul Gaultier
Jean Paul was born on April 24th,1957. His mother worked as a clerk and father was an accountant. He grew up on the outskirts of Paris. Jean Paul was introduced to fashion by his maternal grandmother Marie Garage. He found inspiration in her closet and had his heart set to build a career in the fashion industry.
Career
Fashion
The designer started his journey in fashion in at a very young age, he used to make sketches that he mailed and that impressed Pierre Cardin, seeing his talent and hard work he hired him as an assistant first in 1970. His first individual collection was released in 1976. The entire collection had a characteristic irreverent style dating from 1981, which led to his being known as the enfant terrible of French fashion. Many of Gaultier’s collection is based on streetwear, pop culture especially the Haute collection that is very formal and yet colorful at the same time. The Man- Skirt Collection was introduced by him telling the world its use and its need in every man’s wardrobe.
He is additionally notable for supporting 2003–04 display in the Costume Institute of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art entitled “Braveheart: Men in Skirts,” which demonstrated structures by Dries van Noten, Vivienne Westwood, and Rudi Gernreich notwithstanding Gaultier’s to look at “originators and people 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.”
The legendary designer has often stepped up and taken initiative in breaking taboos. He often chooses unorthodox models for his exhibition, going for full-figured women, tattooed and normal looking women as models. He was criticized and popular both at the same time.
The human body is the basis for his work that has also never been shy of nudity and eroticism. As he stated in a video posted to Twitter that documents an “open casting” that marks his 50 years in the fashion business: “There is no one kind of beauty, there are many kinds.”
Jean Paul was everywhere. He had already made people fall in love with him through his fashion.
With simultaneous things happening in his career Jean Paul had a setback in his personal life, as he lost his boyfriend and business partner, Francis Menuge, died of AIDS-related causes.
Music
Apart from the fashion industry, Gaultier had his interests in music as well. He launched a dance song titled “how to do that” on Fontana Records from which came one of the first-ever “single title” remix albums, AowTou Dou Zat, on Mercury Records.
Fontana Records was an accomplishment when it came to music, in the year 1993. He co-hosted the Channel 4 program Eurotrash with Antoine de Caunes. Gaultier hosted the show till the year 1997
Perfume
Not only in the couture section or music, but Gaultier also gained m much love for his line of perfumes. The collection was in collaboration with Puig company. In the year 1993, the first fragrance was launched and was called” Classique”, a woman perfume with a floral-oriented scent, followed by another scent called “LeMâle” for the men’s collection.
“Le Mâle” became the most selling perfume by the year 2012. The Fragrances have been named according to the attributes a man has.
More About Jean Paul Gaultier
Gaultier was called to sit as a jury member at the Cannes festival 2012. This was the first time that a fashion designer was asked for this position, thus introducing the fashion culture in the festival.
Gaultier delivered formed ensembles for Madonna during the nineties, beginning with her scandalous cone bra for her 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour, and structured the closet for her 2006 Confessions Tour. Gaultier has planned a portion of the ensembles and outfits worn by rocker Marilyn Manson, including for his The Golden Age of Grotesque collection.
Actresses like Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Fergie, Sonam Kapoor, Coco Rocha, Dita von Teese, Amanda Lear, and Camilla Belle have also worn his designs throughout the years.
From Oscars to Cannes celebrities have worn Gaultier’s designed outfit.
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Label and Collections
Both Jean Paul Gaultier and Gaultier PARIS (couture collection) are owned by the legendary designer. Apart from his ready-to-wear collection, he expanded his brand to include the label Junior Gaultier in the year 1998.
This label focused on a lower-priced line designed for the youth. Later on, the same Junior Gaultier label was renamed and called as JPG by Gaultier. The Junior Gaultier label was replaced in 1994 with JPG by Gaultier, a unisex collection that followed the designer’s idea of fashion trends along with ease of gender.
Jean Paul’s elegant design has given him fame and money. With the help of his collection, he was capable of expressing himself portray different cultures and he made a point of featuring his thoughts with the help of his designs.
Jean Paul Gaultier And His Achievements
In the year 2001, Jean was nominated for the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. After 3 years in 2004, he was awarded as the Best international designer CFDA New York. In 2012, Jean Paul Gaultier was respected by amFAR for his lifetime accomplishment. In 2011, Jean Paul Gaultier gets Globe de Cristal as Best style architect.
Jean Paul And His Retirement
On 20th January 2020, Gaultier declared his retirement from the fashion industry in the most unconventional way. The collection he presented was magnificent and managed to steal the entire show.
The ambiance perfectly complimented the entire collection. The event staged in Paris’s storied Théâtre du Châtelet. The walls of the hall added its panache to the collection. The venue was inaugurated in the 1800s by Empress Eugénie. The most extravaganza show was put up by Gaultier, the perfect way to have a farewell for his contribution to fashion trends and industry.
The collection carried more than 200 looks modeled by a lengthy roster of long-time supporters and friends including Boy George, Dita Von Teese, Karlie Kloss, Paris Jackson, and many other notables. The show commenced with a short slide share of a funeral scene from William Klein’s satirical 1966 film Qui Est Vous, Polly Maggoo further continued by the curtains falling on a dim-lit tableau of supermodels in mourning.
Gaultier has always been an integral part of the fashion industry. His works and looks have given plenty of trends in the past 50 years of his contribution.
Gaultier’s work and words both have been an inspiration to people. One of Gaultier’s many quotes, one is “I don’t like dreams or reality. I like when dreams become reality because that is my life” wise words like these have given motivation to aspiring fashion designers and many who lose hope in their dreams. Jean Paul has been a role model, an incredible and much-talented fashion designer anyone has seen. Putting up collections portraying social issues and diversifying the thinking has never been better.
Paris Fashion Week will always have Jean in their hearts.
