High Fashion Design

Jean-Paul Gaultier was born in 1952 in the Parisian suburb of Arcueil.
As a teenager, he spent most of his time skipping school to design imaginary collections, and to learn make-up and hairdressing from his grandmother. His first fashion break came at 18, when Pierre Cardin saw some of his sketches and hired him to work for his couture house.
After leaving Cardin he spent time designing for Jacques Esterel, Jean Patou, and eventually returned for another stint at Cardin.
He finally produced his own independent collection in 1976. It took several years before Gaultier was appreciated by the Paris fashion establishment and after unsuccessfully seeking financing in France; he finally found a patron in the Japanese Kashiyama group. With Kashiyama backing him he created his first thematic collection, James Bond for fall-winter1979-80.

The newest Gaultier creations include a diffusion line called JPG, and two perfumes: the smash success "Jean Paul Gaultier" (inspired by scents reminiscent of his grandmother) and "Fragile" (released in 1999). In 1996 when Gianfranco Ferré was fired as head of Dior, rumors circulated that Gaultier was secretly hoping to replace him.

The job went to John Galliano, but it's Gaultier who got the last word. He presented his first-ever haute couture collection in 1996, that was welcomed as a breath of fresh French air (for a change) on the somewhat stale couture scene. For the past couple of seasons, Gaultier has toned down his rebellious streak and turned towards lady-like elegance in his collections. Another indication that the bad boy is growing up, is perhaps a recent partnership with a house that personifies tradition and classic craftsmanship.

One of France’s most famous fashion exports, Jean Paul Gaultier is much more than just a fashion figure. Best known in the UK for his kitsch TV series, Eurotrash, which he presented with fellow Frenchman, Antoine de Caunes, Gaultier is also responsible for producing the longest kiss in television advertising, between Kristen McMenamy and a matelot in 1997. Born in 1952, he started his career in 1970 as a design assistant at Pierre Cardin.
In 1976, he set up on his label, rejecting his training in favour of a style which drew more from the London street scene than Parisian couture. Though technically brilliant, Gaultier continues to take great delight in parodying the fashion establishment.
In fact, Jean Paul Gaultier is credited with redefining many fashion conventions. In the Eighties, he recreated underwear as outerwear with the corset dress made most famous by Madonna in 1990.

He has also attempted to dismantle clichés of masculine styling, creating a skirt for men in 1988. Besides his men’s and womenswear collections, he has introduced JPG, a younger and sportier line for both sexes, as well as Gaultier perfumes starring in some of the campaigns himself. In 1989, he released a record, though fortunately he did not give up the day job, and he has designed the costumes for many films including Luc Besson’s The

In 1976 Jean-Paul Gaultier produced his first independent collection. The small audience that was at the Palais de la Découverte to witness the 24-year-old designer's show, featuring dresses inspired by straw placemats, thought him not worthy of further attention.
Today Gaultier's shows are among the hottest tickets at the Prêt, with everyone from adolescent fashion groupies to Madonna anxiously awaiting what promises to be one of the most entertaining shows of the week.

Over the years Jean-Paul Gaultier has enshrined himself as (caution: cliche ahead) Paris fashion's "enfant terrible." From season to season Gaultier's creations reflect his ever-contradictory sources of inspiration: sexy femininity and androgyny; hedonism and religion; uptight bourgeois traditions and raw street life. In 1989 he was hired by director Peter Greenaway to design the costumes for "The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover." A year later he designed the famous pointed corsets for Madonna's Blond Ambition tour. His sense of the theatrical got him a record deal and a spot as co-host of the British television show Eurotrash.

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