5 Decades of Fashion: The Retirement of Jean Paul Gaultier

After 50 years of working in the fashion industry, Jean Paul Gaultier has retired from his position at his eponymous label. Previously shutting his ready-to-wear and menswear lines in order to focus on his couture line in 2014, his era of creating whimsical avant garde clothing that has stunned the world has come to a bittersweet end. There are rumors regarding who will replace him, but there is yet to be an official announcement on who will take over Gaultier’s legacy. With 5 decades in fashion with various stints at big houses, the range of Gaultier’s creativity knows no bounds.

At the young age of 18 and with no professional training to back him up, Gaultier was hired by the iconic Pierre Cardin after he fell in love with the young designer’s sketches. He continued working under many of the big name Maisons of Paris. Gaultier served as a designer at Jean Patou, which suited his more avant garde nature, from 1971 to 1973. He later went on to present his brand’s first couture collection in 1976. Gaultier was appointed Creative Director at Hermés throughout the early 2000s for 7 years, then left to shift focus solely on his personal brand.

Source: Harper’s Bazaar Arabia — Source: *Harper’s Bazaar Arabia*

Camp is synonymous with Gautier’s brand identity and codes. Some examples of his genius looks include the classic Breton stripes—a reinterpretation of sailors uniforms—the iconic creation of cone bras (worn by Madonna), and usage of art as inspiration collections. Gaultier’s collections were first and foremost a love letter to the French’s fashion heritage and to Paris.

In the current Kardashian-era of influencers, many people of the younger generations have rediscovered and become obsessed with the outlandish outfits of vintage Gaultier; his collections have reached iconic, almost cult-level status when thinking about 90s era runways. Supermodels Naomi Campbell, Coco Rocha, Christy Turlington, Cindy Bruni, and Yasmin Le Bon walked in his shows throughout the decades.

Current top models Jordan Dunn, Gigi Hadid, Bella Hadid, Karlie Kloss, Winnie Harlow, and Irina Shayk walked down Gaultier’s finale show. Meanwhile, Khelfa, Karen Elson, Coco Rocha, Estelle Lefebure, and Yasmine also made reappearances as a nod to their careers from the ‘80s and ‘90s.

Sources: Tom & Lorenzo, Fashion Awards, Fashion Awards

Gaultier’s theatrical yet sophisticated looks are a sight to see. His creativity cannot be contained, thus typically resulting in an enormous number of looks put down the catwalk at a time. Nowhere was this more obvious than during his last show for Fall Couture 2020, with over 200 looks to permanently close out his stint in fashion.

Source: Elle Canada — Source: *Elle Canada*

As with any historic fashion moment, all of the biggest designers came out to show their support and gratitude to Jean Paul Gaultier for his decades of phenomenal work and contributions to the fashion industry. Nicolas Ghesquière, Isabel Marant, Christian Louboutin, Julien Dossena, Mary Katrantzou, Christian Lacroix, Dries Van Noten, and possibly even the elusive Martin Margiela were all in attendance.

Many of the aforementioned designers interned or worked under the leadership of Gautlier at some point in their careers. Working under Gaultier’s avant garde spirit is a right of passage of sorts for many of the designers we revere today. Even though Gaultier has closed his chapter, he will be sorely missed by countless people who continue to be inspired by his tenacity, work-ethic, and ethereal designs.