C’EST CHIC!
Thanks to Coco Chanel and Jean Paul Gaultier, the humble Bretton stripe top has stood the test of time. The latter designer wore his with a certain chutzpah, the fashion larrikin an early advocator of men wearing skirts, the Cher to Antoine de Caunes’ Sonny on Eurotrash, the man who put Madonna in that cone bra. This year, his 50th anniversary working in fashion, Jean Paul Gaultier has well and truly left his mark. Last month, fashion’s l’enfant terrible took a bow at his final runway show during haute couture week. Next month, fans can witness the craftmanship of his designs through his long-standing collaboration with the Ballet Preljocaj, its gothic retelling of Snow White pirouetting its way across the globe to be part of the Auckland Arts Festival. For more than a decade, the designer has worked with acclaimed choreographer Angelin Preljocaj to create hundreds of bewitching costumes, marrying his avantgarde aesthetics with the technicalities of performance wear. “Working on a ballet is very specific as there are many constraints, but that is what is interesting about it,” says the 67-year-old designer from Paris.
“You have to find solutions for the dancers to be able to perform. I have my codes and my obsessions, so you find them in everything I do.” For now, as he has done for the past 50 years, he’s happy to adapt to changing times as the fashion world awaits his next move. “Today I think that there is too much of everything. Instead of recycling we are producing even more. Recycling is a great challenge at the moment, but I have always done it. We as designers have an obligation to follow what is happening in society and to show that through design.”