Legendary designer Jean-Paul Gaultier retired from the runway in January.
The show was set at the Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris.
Gaultier became known as one of the most innovative designers in fashion history.
Gaultier was born April 24, 1952 in Arcueil, Val-de-Marne, France.
Source: Biography
Gaultier said he spent a lot of time growing up with his grandmother, who lived nearby.
According to Gaultier’s profile in The New Yorker, his grandmother provided wellness counselling to the locals, and let him sit in on the sessions.
Specifically, toward the women who were facing relationship problems, she would tell them to try and spice up their wardrobe, introducing Gaultier to the potential power fashion could have — especially in its ability to shape, form, and repair relationships.
Gaultier would draw before and after photos of the women, showing what they looked like when they came in and then what they looked like after they took the advice. From his grandmother, Gaultier also was introduced to corsets — something that would come in handy when he would start to design some of Madonna’s most iconic looks in the 1990s.
Source: New Yorker
Growing up, Gaultier loved fashion, art and design. As a young boy, he would send sketches to the famous couture stylists of the day.
Source: New Yorker
A year later, Gaultier worked for designer Jacques Esterel, and soon after, designer Jean Patou.
He also told the outlet that the 1945 film “Falbalas” by Jacques Becker made him want to go into fashion. The film is about a Parisian dressmaker who seduces his best friend’s fiancée. The film provided a detailed look at the fashion industry of the time, and shaped Gaultier’s ideas of what that world would be like.
“The House of Patou, headquartered in a spectacular eighteenth-century building, made him feel that he was living in his favorite film,” the publication wrote.
In 1974, he made his way back to Cardin, where he managed one of the designer’s boutiques in Manila, Philippines.
He told the New Yorker that his boyfriend a the time, Francis Menuge, was the one who encouraged him to start his own line, something he did two years later.
According to Vogue Australia, Gaultier began to dress the first lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, who was known for her style and spending. The outlet said that the young designer was so popular in the country that he had trouble obtaining an exit visa from the government.
In 1976, Gaultier launched his own line and presented his first collection with nine models at a Paris planetarium.
In his first collection, he became the first person to mix motorcycle jackets with dresses, putting a model in a tulle skirt, which created a look that has now become one of his most famous.
His work became so popular that, within two years, his pieces were sold in some of the most popular boutiques in Paris.
Source: The New Yorker, Vogue Australia
In 1982, Gaultier opened his own fashion house. Vogue Australia reported that he was the one who ‘made garbage bags and tin cans fashionable.’
In 1980, he released a collection designed around the idea of “throwaway beauty.” He used garbage bags and tin cans as motifs, the latter of which has since become his signature. To open his fashion house, he received an investment from Japanese company Kashiyama.
Source: The New Yorker
In 1983, he put lingerie at the forefront of his fashion shows, with his signature corset dresses.
He was known for using a diverse set of models to show his work, the most notable being Farida Khelfa who, at the time, became one of the first models of North African decent to have prominence in the fashion industry, as reported by the New Yorker.
In 1985, Gaultier opened his first boutique in Paris.
“It was not a gay statement — quite the contrary,” he told the New Yorker. “Men were changing— they were not so macho. So I thought, why not?”
In 1985, Gaultier hired Martin Margiela as a design assistant. Margiela stayed until 1987, when he expressed interests in opening his own line. Margiela went on to open Maison Margiela, one of the most famous French fashion houses of the modern era. Gaultier called Margiela one of the best assistants he’s ever had.
Source: I-D
Gaultier met Madonna in 1987 after her concert at the Parc de Sceaux, just outside of Paris. That moment changed Gaultier’s life as he knew it.
Only a few years before they met, Gaultier was working on corset dresses. As a child, he once made a bra for one of his stuffed bears. Corsets and lingerie had always been an inspiration for the designer, now Madonna would put his ambition to the test.
The pop singer asked him to design 358 costumes for her 1990 Blond Ambition tour. This was the beginning of Gaultier as an icon, legend, and haute couture master.
He designed the costumes for her 2006 Confessions World Tour, as well.
Tragically, Gaultier’s partner Menuge was diagnosed with an AIDS-related illness and died in 1990, the year Madonna’s tour kicked off.
He said Mengue encouraged him to start his own couture line. At the time, couture houses were closing, not necessarily opening, but that didn’t stop Gaultier from trying.
In 1992, he published a pictorial autobiography called “A nous deux la mode.”
From 1990 to 1992, Nicolas Ghesquière, the now artistic director at Louis Vuitton, worked as an assistant to Gaultier.
Source: Business of Fashion
In 1993, Gaultier launched his brand’s first fragrance known as ‘Classique’ which has since become known for its body sculpture bottle design.
In 2018, Kim-Kardashian West was accused of copying Gaultier’s famous design, in which he criticized the reality star for doing so. She told Cosmopolitan,”It’s iconic and celebrates the woman’s body, but my inspiration was a statue. I wanted [mine] to be really personal with my exact mold, but I’ve always loved the Gaultier bottles.”
Source: Vogue UK
In 1996, Gaultier was ready to try something else and met with Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH.
Arnault instead gave the Dior job to John Galliano who, at the time, was at Givenchy. Arnault offered Gaultier Galliano’s old position at Givenchy, but Gaultier was not interested.
“I thought Givenchy was very bourgeois,” he told the publication. “I loved Saint Laurent, Dior, Cardin. Givenchy was not a dream of mine. So I told Mr. Arnault no, I was not dreaming of Givenchy.”
Source: The New Yorker
Later that year, Gaultier opened his haute couture house. Today, his house is one of eleven to be formally recognized by France’s Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture — the body which governs high fashion in France.
To start, one must design made-to-order clothes for private clients, and hire no less than 15 full-time craftspeople. Then, twice a year, the designer must present a collection that has at least 35 outfits and the collection must include both evening and day wear. In addition, couture is oftentimes so expensive that very few people actually buy it.
“Couture houses almost always operate at a loss; they exist to showcase the designers’ most unencumbered fantasies,” the publication wrote. “Most customers can only afford something from a designer’s ready-to-wear line — or a perfume — whose brand has been made more valuable because he or she designs couture.”
His first couture collection was shown in 1997 and actress Nicole Kidman bought one of the first pieces. From there, he dressed a slew of high-profile stars.
In the 80s and 90s, Gaultier did much more than fashion and beauty.
In 2001, he was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in France, the highest order someone can receive in France for merits of military and civility.
Source: Vogue
In 2003 he was appointed as the head designer of Hermès, a position which he held until 2010. He had succeeded his former assistant Martin Margiela
His first collection with Hermès was the fall 2004 collection, however, WWD reported that the designer “failed to ignite the king of spark to the house’s that other designers brought to iconic French houses, such as John Galliano at Christian Dior and Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton. Christophe Lemaire.”
He was replaced by Christophe Lemaire.
Source: WWD
In 2003, he sponsored an exhibit at the Costume Institute of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art entitled ‘Braveheart: Men in Skirts.’
It also featured work by designers Vivienne Westwood, Dries van Noten, Rudi Gernreich, and Gaultier’s own work.
Source: The Met
Gaultier designed costumes for films and was nominated for a César Award.
He also worked on the film “The Cook, the Thief, HIs Wife, and Her Lover” which was released in 1989, and “Bad Education” which was released in 2004.
In 2010, Target partnered with the designer.
Gaultuer’s collection paid tribute to American women “celebrating the forces of style both past and present in American pop culture.” It was available from March 7, 2010 through April 11, 2010.
Source: Target
International museums have showcased his work. In 2011, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts collaborated with the designer for the ‘The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk.’ exhibit.
He wanted the exhibition to showcase what interested him, which was,”flesh, ethnicity, different kinds of global beauty, cinema, my interest with Madonna, tattoos, the Parisienne, the male as object, all that kind of thing,” he said.
Source: The New Yorker
In 2011 he released his first-ever swimwear line with lingerie brand La Perla.
Source: Vogue UK, WWD
In 2012, he became the first fashion designer to become a jury member for the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
Source: Screen Comment, Britannica
That same year he was appointed as Diet Coke’s creative director and he helped with some of the company’s advertising campaigns.
He stopped designing ready-to-wear fashion in 2015, announcing that instead, he would focus solely on haute couture.
He was tired of the commercialization of his merchandize and wanted to, instead, focus on film, theatre, and couture.
“Fashion has changed. A proliferation of clothing. Eight collections per season — that’s 16 a year,” he told the Associated Press, as reported by Business of Fashion. “The system doesn’t work… There aren’t enough people to buy them. We’re making clothes that aren’t destined to be worn.”
Source: Business of Fashion
In 2018, he returned to his love for the theatre and staged a cabaret show that was loosely based on his life.
As a child, Gaultier told The New Yorker that his grandmother would let him watch broadcast performances at the Bergere theatre.
In 2019, Gaultier released a collection with the streetwear brand Supreme, which was an instant hit.
In January 2020, Gaultier announced that he would officially retire from fashion. His haute couture show during Paris Fashion Week was his last show.
The show featured an all-star set of models including Karlie Kloss, Bella and Gigi Hadid, and his muse Farida Khelfa. Attendees included Lady Gaga, former first lady of France Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and the designer’s former assistant, Nicolas Ghesquière.
Source: New York Times
Gaultier stepped away from a legacy as one of the most influential and innovative designers of the modern era, paving the way for a new crop of creatives to follow in his footsteps.
“There is not one kind of beauty,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “There are many kinds.” [“source=businessinsider”]
