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It is difficult to underline a less famous name among modern high-fashion designers than Jean-Paul Gaultier. His method is a provocation, his signature style cannot be confused with any other, he is loved and hated, but he continues to shock and amaze the fashion audience with his ideas and their embodiment on the catwalks of Haute Couture Weeks from year to year.
Jean-Paul Gaultier became famous not only for his artistic costumes and work with many fashion houses but also for the development of unique accessories, interior design items, and, of course, perfumes. And in each product labeled with the Gaultier brand, you feel a mixture of genius and a light flee of madness - exactly what Jean-Paul Gaultier is adored by fashionistas around the world for.
Being born in 1952 in a suburb of Paris, Jaen-Paul Gaultier was fascinated by the fashion industry since his childhood. He was a son of a bourgeois, brought up in the traditions of that time. From an early age, he was attracted by everything beautiful. He preferred watching movies to noisy boyish games, from where he drew inspiration for creating his first images. He embodied children's design ideas in costumes for a teddy bear. Spending a lot of time in the company of his mother, aunt and grandmother, Jean-Paul studied all the subtleties of female psychology. Skipping school, the boy devoted his time to drawing and looking at fashion magazines. The parents in every possible way contributed to the self-realization of the child and therefore supported his desire to devote himself to the world of fashion.
And Jean-Paul Gaultier himself was inspired by the publications and photos of the Elle magazine, thanks to which he decided to try himself in creating fashionable clothes. At the same time, he never received special education. All ideas and sketches belonged to the hand of a self-taught. But the young Parisian did not lack ambition, and from a young age, he sent his sketches to the most venerable couturiers for approval.
In 1970, at the age of 18, Gaultier sent his first serious sketches to the eminent Pierre Cardin and in return received not only high praise from the couturier himself but also an invitation to take the place of his personal assistant – an incredible success for a young lad. Such success came as a complete surprise for the future fashion designer and his family because Jean-Paul did not have special education. The invitation, of course, was accepted and young Jean-Paul went to the fashion capital. He stayed at the Cardin Fashion House for only one year, after which he worked with fashion designers Jean Patou and Angelo Tarlazzi. Four years later, in 1974, Gaultier returned to the Cardin Fashion House to create a collection for the United States. It took a year to develop it.
Only ten years have passed and Jean-Paul Gaultier decided to widen the horizon and to start his own career as a fashion designer. First – under the protection of Kashiyama, a Japanese consortium. His schoolmates Francis Menuage and Donald Potar were co-founders of the brand and took a post of chief-director one after another.
At the same time, Gaultier created the first author's collection of clothes several years before the founding of his own brand. He released it in 1976, but due to mistakes in promotion, the collection went unnoticed. The fact is that on the day of the presentation in Paris, a show of a more famous designer was held simultaneously, and all media representatives, as well as fashion critics and celebrities, preferred to go to the premiere of a more popular couturier. Gaultier remembered this mistake for the rest of his life: henceforth all his shows looked like exotic and outrageous shows, which no one would have passed by.
Since 1981, the history of Jean-Paul Gaultier Fashion House began. The nickname Fashion Bully finally stuck with Gaultier in 1981, after the release of his next collection "High-tech". The audience was struck by an incredible audacity for France: models paraded in outfits from trash cans, cans and accessories from cat food or boxes. The next collection, "Dadaism" in 1983, made a splash in the fashion world due to some vulgarity of outfits, which brought Gaultier fame as an avant-garde artist. In the period from 1984 to 1985, the world saw several more of Gaultier's collections. At the Cultural Shock fashion show, the girls paraded in underwear - corsets, hairpieces, pointed bras, which caused a wave of criticism. Gaultier was accused of deliberately disfiguring female beauty. In the collection "Man-Object", designed for the stronger sex, the designer presented to the public the outfits consisting of vests and skirts. In the works of this period, Gaultier tried to equalize the stronger and weaker sex, as well as to break the stereotypical section of male and female attire.
In 1986 Jean-Paul produced two collections: Dolls that was inspired by the image of a prostitute, and the designer dressed models in stockings and black satin underwear and Russian Collection which main motive was the Cyrillic inscriptions printed on the clothes.
In 1987, Madonna herself proposed her collaboration to Jean-Paul, which brought the fashion designer worldwide fame. Since then, it has been Gaultier who has worked on the images of the singer and sews stage outfits for her, including the famous cone-shaped bra.
In 1989 Jean-Paul received several orders to design costumes for films and his ideas are still on the top of Hollywood industry.
The year of 1993 was remarkable for Gaultier’s fans due to the presentation of the first perfume created under Jean-Paul Gaultier brand. That year the designer had also presented three collections using different sources for inspiration. His Rabby-Chick collection turned to the image of Hasidic Jewish culture. Another one was the Tattoo collection with ethnical motives and rich tattooing on models’ bodies. The third one had also ethnical roots and was named Mongols.
One more remarkable collection by that Enfant Terrible was edited in 1995. The End Of The Century claimed changes in the fashion industry and anticipated the beginning of a new era. And with it, changes in the Gaultier brand also began.
In 1999 Jean-Paul Gaultier traded 1/3 of his Fashion House shares to Hermes. The deal was profitable for both sides. Jean-Paul got money he needed to widen his business and Hermes Fashion House got fresh air in its collections. Since 2003, Jean-Paul Gaultier possessed a position of creative director in Hermes. It seemed provocative as the creative chief in such an aristocratic and even rigid brand is a real rebel of the modern fashion.
In 2010, Gaultier left his position to start his own career. Despite the fact that his collections were produced without interruption even under the protection of Hermes brand, in July 2010 Jean-Paul Gaultier was called the President of eponymous Fashion House and of the company named Jean Paul Gaultier S.A.
Being a real provocateur of fashion, Jean-Paul Gaultier is no less shocking in his personal life. He became one of the first fashion designers to openly come out back in the 80s. For a long time, the designer's lover was his classmate and subsequently the director of his first fashion house, Francis Menuage. After the couturier's lover died of AIDS in 1990, Jean-Paul Gaultier chose solitude. At the same time, he does not refuse publicity: he participates in various parties and events, leads an open lifestyle, and at one time even acted as a presenter on the cult channel MTV, where he developed and hosted an author's program with the shocking name of Eurotrash.
If we talk about the contribution to the world fashion made by Jean-Paul Gaultier, then his legacy is incredibly great. It is expressed both in trends for a particular design, and in individual forms or things that have become the designer's calling cards.
Parisian spirit this is how you can characterize each collection of Gaultier. In his women's clothing lines, he adheres to a clear principle of a maximum emancipation! Gauthier's women are independent, tough, devilishly beautiful. Not without reason, the divas of Hollywood, such as Mae West, served as a source of inspiration for him.
London punk is the second most important sensation that permeates all Gauthier's ideas. London has become a second home for him, and the signature motifs of punk culture and SKA are very noticeable in the designer's work. Just look at his costumes created for Marilyn Manson!
Signature Gaultier silhouettes are broad shoulders, narrow hips, sharp angles and rigid frames. Want an example? Remember odious and famous Madonna's pointed bra! By the way, the first version of that model was presented 10 years earlier, in 1976, in frames of the first Gaultier’s collection. It was orange top with conic bra that further was shoot by Peter Linderberg in his photo project.
Underwear as a part of outerwear is also Gaultier's merit. It was in his collections that lace or leather bras became the main element of clothing, stockings played no less role than shorts, and the combination of delicate underwear with rigid shapes and fabrics looked both fantastic and erotic.
Abandonment of standards for men's / women's clothing. Since the 1980s, Gaultier has been dressing men in kilts and women in men's double-breasted jackets, masterly swapping the gender of a particular item of clothing.
Non-standard forms of fashion models on the catwalk are also the merit of Jean-Paul Gaultier. Long before the scandals with "Victoria Secret", the onset of the era of body-positive and tolerance, in his fashion shows presented models of various sizes and heights. Often it was made for the same provocative contrast for which the Gauthier brand is so famous.
And if we talk about specific style elements, Jean-Paul Gaultier gave us crop tops that reveal the belly, silky cardigans that looked like peignoirs, sailor's vests inspired by Breton nautical clothes, and, of course, custom-shaped glasses.
Being an extraordinary personality, Jean-Paul Gaultier made the fashion as extraordinary and provocative as his own nature is. It is especially noticeable if you look at muses and ambassadors of Gaultier collections. Among them, you can see the most remarkable and rebel celebrities from 80s till nowadays.
One of the first muses who inspired Gaultier in early 80s was a punk singer and musician Nina Hagen. Her extremely rebel scenic images were created by Jean-Paul and this was a considerable part of Hagen’s success.
The next celebrity whose image in 80s is strongly associated with Gaultier sense of fashion is Madonna. If you try to remember the most remarkable image of the Queen of the Pop Music, the first thing you may recall in memory is her tapered corset, a quintessence of sexuality for that period. The creator of that corset was Jean-Paul Gaultier and since that time, his collaboration with Madonna still lasts. For example, he developed the collection of images for her 2006 Confession tour.
One more celebrity with shocking reputation who worked with Jean-Paul Gaultier was Marilyn Manson. Designs by Gaultier became a considerable part of his image and we can with no doubt say that Marilyn Manson owes Gaultier his signature dark, sophisticated and challenging costume style.
And in XXI century his muses became even more eccentric. He was inspired to make extraordinary images for queer-gender stars Dana International and Conchita Wurst.
But if you think, Jean-Paul Gaultier worked with eccentric and shocking celebrities only, we can prove it is not so. He was an artist who created costumes for gorgeous pop-singer Kylie Minogue in 2008. Since 2009, he also is collaborating with Canadian singer Milene Farmer creating images and concepts for her tours in 2009, 2013 and 2019.
One more page in Gaultier fashion house is tightly bounded with movie costumes. The designer had created concepts for costumes for different European film directors including Peter Greenaway, Luc Besson, Pedro Almodavar and others. The most popular costumes concept for film by Gaultier are images from The 5th Element by Luc Besson. He designed 954 costumes for this movie. “I wanted the very best designer, and that is Jean-Paul,” Besson said. He knows the color, he knows the taste of New York. The space of the film, which takes place in the future, allowed Gaultier to embody all his fantasies in costumes. So, even for the brutal Korben Dallas, played by Bruce Willis, he came up with a suit with a neckline on the back, which is usually a part of women's dresses.
You can also enjoy his work in Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, The Thief, His Wife&Her Lover. As the motto of the film is "food, sex and death." Gaultier's style, with its sexually aggressive dresses, corsets, tight skirts, high heels, fits perfectly into this concept.
And in Almodovar’s Kika Gaultier was a single-star designer. He developed all costumes of the main character played by Victoria Abril. "Her costumes reflect the character of the heroine," says Almodovar, and Gaultier calls the style "bloody glamor."
Provocative and sexy outfits by Gaultier are quite common on the red carpets of Oscar ceremony, Met Gala and other fashionable Hollywood events and parties. Even eyewear by this French Enfant Terrible are real masterpieces worth collecting in museums and private collections.
In parallel with the creation of exclusive clothing, Jean-Paul Gaultier began active development of perfume lines and accessories from the early 90s. The latter include a variety of sunglasses and frames from Gaultier. In Gaultier's optics, even the most modest girl looks like a real diva, and the most boring nerd looks like a real macho. The secret of such a transformation is quite simple. Gaultier brilliantly combines the incongruous in his accessories and boldly plays with textures, shapes and colors.
Jean-Paul Gaultier's eyeglass collections have undergone many changes since the early 90s. No less than a collection of clothes that a prolific designer could produce up to 3 a year. Gautier glasses and frames are just as varied and plentiful. The most popular of them are:
The steampunk collection (collection 55). The many sunglasses and frames in this extravagant style are eye-catching. The round shape of the lenses, unusual metal frames, as if they were assembled from the remains of the structure of some kind of steam engine, visible fasteners and bolts, all this could not pass by the fashionistas. In this collection you will also find unusual glasses with rainbow lenses. Do you want to see the world exclusively in rainbow light? Nothing is impossible because vintage models of glasses from Gaultier will fulfill your dream 100%. The same line will allow you to choose glasses in the spirit of the Victorian era, more like lorgnets or pince-nez. Today, such forms are again at the peak of popularity! Add to this the outstanding workmanship of optical accessories, and all of the Steampunk collection's models have been produced in Japan for their high-quality titanium and gold, and you have the perfect accessory for your look.
Collection 56 are glasses that have become the personification of the 90s. All models in this collection were also produced in Japan. At the same time, Gaultier collected in it all possible fashionable designs of that era such as rectangular and round shapes with thin metal frames in the spirit of Leon the killer or glasses with a wide frame and an animal print in the spirit of Ruby Rhod from the 5th Element, glasses with frames with through holes and unique models of type 056-0174, in which a non-standard mechanism for adjusting to the width of the face was implemented. All of them reflect the spirit of the era and the vision of the couturier himself. And the colors of the glasses in the sunglasses of the 56 collection will make every fan of bright accessories envy.
In the 90s Gaultier became one of the first designers to create separate collections for children and teenagers. JPG Junior was a sensation at the time, and the couturier decided not to stop only with clothes but also developed a line of glasses for junior high-fashion lovers. The collection of Jean-Paul Gaultier was marked as Collection 57, however, it has become a cult not only for children but also for adults. With its design, it largely repeated the already popular 55th collection, but in contrast to it, it was much cheaper. Instead of titanium and 22-carat gold, plastic and cheaper metal were chosen for its manufacture, which, however, did not affect the quality of the glasses. And after Jean Reno appeared on the screen as Leon in 1997, in the glasses of the 57 JPG Junior collection, the series became cult.
Similarly, collection 56 was duplicated by another series of optical accessories from Gauthier - JPG Junior 58. And she also won the love of fans of custom frames and exclusive sunglasses.
If you want to acquire original Gaultier glasses, our online store will help you find the perfect pair. We collect exclusive models of Jean-Paul Gaultier optics all over the world and offer you to buy only original vintage models from 1994 (the year Gaultier launched the first eyewear collection) to 2002. Each pair is not just a beautiful high-quality accessory , this is a real legend, because there were simply no passing models in Gauthier's collections: each of them personified the era and fashion trends. Many models of glasses and frames by Gaultier repeat the motives of individual clothing collections, and you can find such glasses in our catalog.
Just take a look at the range and you will definitely fall in love with the creations of this outstanding contemporary designer. By the way, this year Jean-Paul Gaultier announced that he was leaving the mass market. This means that the fashion house Gaultier will no longer produce ready-to-wear collections. It remains to wait for the release of exclusive haute couture collections and hope that the maestro will delight us with another collection of accessories. At the same time, vintage models of Gaultier's glasses are becoming more and more valuable every year, and their quality is an order of magnitude higher than modern production standards.
We are pleased to present exclusive samples of Jean-Paul Gaultier's creativity in our online store because this designer turned the whole world of fashion and introduced his own rules into the rather ossified backstage of the high-fashion catwalks.
