Editor’s note: Since Jean Paul Gaultier retired from the runway, each season the house has invited a new guest designer to create a collection inspired by the designer’s incredible archives. fashion collection. Ahead of Julien Dossena’s debut, we take a look back at Gaultier’s latest digital fall couture show. This show was originally held in Paris in July 2000.
Jean Paul Gaultier, French fashion’s eternal ‘scary kid’ doesn’t have it when it comes to his fall 2000 His reputation lives up to expectations when it comes to haute couture collections, which respect craftsmanship traditions. Model Sylvia van der Klooster recalls that, as in the past, looks were announced by numbers. “It was the first time I met Jean Paul,” she recalls, “and he was, and always has been, the kindest, brightest, funniest designer. He told me that I looked like Isabelle Adjani (I remember I had to go to her).” Yet another French icon was depicted on the garment, Kiki de Montparnasse, the striking muse of the avant-garde artist. Some airy dresses paid homage to her heyday.
with John Galliano for Christian Dior with Naughty Nurse and Marie Antoinette for In stark contrast to the theatrical collections of the protagonists – all of which are very playful – Gaultier created sophisticated, grown-up garments that could easily be imagined wearing to a gala or down the red carpet. It’s a hearty meal rather than a dessert (like having them eat cake), but still fanciful.
There is both glamor and gravitas here; perhaps what facilitates the latter is the collection’s unique focus. This is Gaultier’s most sincere and steadfast love – a Valentine’s Day gift from Paris. He hasn’t completely abandoned his associations with punk (note his use of plaid), sarees or trench coats, but his explorations of the City of Light’s many facets, from dandies to sailors, berets to lovely lace, All finished off in an Eiffel Tower dress complete with fiber optic lights. This monument to the industrial revolution also appears on socks and high heels. Gaultier even painted Pigalle’s neon signs and lettered his love for the French capital on jewelry and gold. Sequined sailor stripes winked at the designer’s own uniform.
Public displays of love are Paris approved, some of the costumes have a graphic of a kissing couple that looks like it was pulled from an old movie (another JPG hobby) . On the green strapless, the graphic looks pixelated, which seems appropriate. After the millennium bug, the digital age has arrived. Twenty-three years later, it looks a lot like glitchcore, doesn’t it?
