PARIS, Jan 23, 2007/ FW/ --- Eric Tibusch has shown this very afternoon his second couture collection in the off calendar. A nobody a year ago, this 34 year old man that can hardly be called a designer, all of a sudden -from his recent biography- looked like he could become French fashion’s next sweetheart. After having seen this collection, one can think he probably never will, hopefully!

Associated to an unknown financier, Daniel Chocu, a clothes manufacturer who has asked him to revive the mythic house of Jacques Fath, as its new Creative Director, Eric Tibusch also presented today his couture runway show for his own brand and also targets to develop a ready-to-wear lien under the name Tibusch by Eric Tibusch Paris.

What a debut! But where does this young supposed genius come from? How did he emerge out of the blue? Born in Corsica, he spent his childhood between Corsica, a French island in the Mediterranean and the isle of Tahiti, right in the middle of the Pacific. From 1998, he claims to have worked at the side of Jean-Paul Gaultier himself.

The collection Eric Tibusch has shown this afternoon at the Lido was very clearly, too obviously inspired by Gaultier. Can Eric Tibusch ever do more than a mere copy and paste of his master’s creations?

Every single look in his set of 34 was shouting the opposite. He might have worked in the house of Gaultier, probably not as a designer, he might admire Jean-Paul as a fan; he might worship him as a god, that does not make him a fashion designer.

No original creativity whatsoever could be pointed at his work this afternoon, but only again and again, look after look, a pale copy of his master’s. All right Eric Tibusch understood Gaultier’s shapes in a very literal manner, but he certainly does not share with him the same taste to mix colours. One felt like telling him: all right now that you are mastering copy and paste, please change the ink cartridge in the colour printer!

Opposed to what the press kit mentioned about Tibusch’s pretensions to a “young couture”, the impressions he conveyed of badly coloured Gaultier inspired Parisiennes conjured us up back in the 1940s. I am not mentioning here the finishings, which were probably executed on the premises of his ready-to-wear business partner and were couture only by name, not even high fashion quality.

What needs to be added? He called this collection “Les Parisiennes”, like you know who had done previously… even his press notes had adopted the same typography as the venerable house’s official website! Too much is too much and enough is enough, this show thus does not require further description.

Too similar to another designer is really unacceptable, unforgettable, and unforgivable. It has become indecent that such an impostor could also become the Creative Director of any fashion house, and particularly of a mythic one like Jacques Fath. Having demonstrated brilliantly but unwillingly today that there could be only one Gaultier, are we doomed to follow Tibusch again in his imposture at the commands of Jacques Fath?

There is bound to be genuine talents around who would fit in these shoes much more efficiently and creatively, to pay tribute to a real genius of a couturier. You can forget Eric Tibucsh Paris, it should not last for a long time anyway. But it would be a real shame that he could definitely kill the house of Jacques Fath.