Exploring Jean Paul Gaultier's Unforgettable and Outlandish Looks and Designs
The French fashion designer's vision is defined by flair, fun, and flamboyance.
If you're a fashion enthusiast, you know Jean Paul Gaultier likes to lean more unconventional when it comes to his design choices. Known for his extravagance and outlandish vision, Gaultier has dressed fashion and pop culture icons like Madonna and Dita Von Teese. The designer is known as fashion's enfant terrible, as he often broke the rules other designers abided by. He dressed his models in cone bras, replicated the look of pubic hair, and explored looks with deconstructed corsets, tin cans, and clothes atop clothes. For Gaultier, the nickname is a result of people not knowing what to make of him.
"That name came from people who did not know what to say about me. People were interested in me, but they didn’t know what to call it. So they said, ‘Enfant terrible," Gaultier told Out Magazine.
For Gaultier, fashion is made and built for fun; based on the praise he gives his mentor in the same interview, he opposes the idea of creating purely to make money.
"He didn't make it, but he loved the idea," Gaultier told the outlet. "It wasn't like an old French house. It wasn't that old prostitution of doing everything for money; it was doing things for the love of the idea. He taught me to be truly free-spirited."
Pierre Cardin, who got his start as a tailor for Dior and then progressed into a designer in his own right, saw exceptional talent within an 18-year-old Gaultier and hired him as his assistant.
"You are a true designer when people recognize your work without even looking at the label," he said. "This is the case for Jean-Paul Gaultier. I remember him suggesting a number of really amusing things, like a canine spacesuit—a unisex jumpsuit for dogs—and a wedding outfit for bride and groom," Cardin said Gaultier in relation to the designer's unbridled creativity and vision as per British Vogue.
Below we explore the designer's famed and intrepid vision. Here's a collection of Jean Paul Gaultier's unforgettable and outlandish looks.
