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Gaultier: Absolutely Brilliant
By: Godfrey Deeny
Photo by Gruber-FWD
Mar 11, 2002/ FWD/ --- This town increasingly belongs to Jean-Paul Gaultier, who on
Saturday morning presented possibly the most brilliant collection seen in the current
ready-to-wear season.
A long, electric rack, the sort you see in the dry cleaners, hung from the ceiling of the
Carrousel du Louvre, in front of a construction-site backdrop replete with black plastic.
The opening passage was a pair of socks gliding out to whirring sounds on a hanger, the
second a stockman, the third a white down jacket, which set the theme for the opening look
of the show.
But Jean-Paul’s down jackets were unlike any other; his were crisscrossed with lace like
a straight jacket, cut as open-back vests, or Parisian curvy in anthracite.
Some worked as raincoats that when unbuttoned became Belle Époque-style gowns.
Gaultier even pulled the same trick with one of his hard-to-believe-it’s-possible trenches.
The designer kept coming up with fresh approaches to traditional garments, like a stiff silk
morning dress where the sleeves are cut off and the pant cuffs reach the knee.
Jeans rolled up 15 inches and ankle warmers came with old-style French labels.
Gaultier is renovating his new headquarters near the Temple post office, and mailbags made
multiple deliveries in his show as mini dresses.
Some were worn over curvy black leather biker jackets, others with sleek silver jet-ski
jackets.
And Jean-Paul lifted and tweaked ideas from his stellar haute couture show, sending out
dresses made of bands of ties and cummerbunds.
The look was arty yet thoroughly sexy -- a surefire hit -- and Jean-Louis Dumas, the
chairman of his polite partner Hermes, sat smiling front row.
Already this year Gaultier unveiled his great new command center, assumed the mantle of the
new leader of couture, and pulled off a great men’s collection.
This morning, there weren’t many celebrities present, but it didn’t matter.
It was the clothes in the amphitheatre underneath the Tuileries Gardens that counted --
and they were fabulous.
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