PARIS, Jul 8, 2006/ FW/ --- In a season where collections have been very subdued and artistry has taken center stage, Jean Paul Gaultier presented a collection that couture dreams are made of, putting smiles and covetous glances from the couture clients who sat front row. Together with Cher and the rest of the audience, spontaneous applause greeted the models as they come out or take off the sumptuous furs to show the outfit inside.

Before the season started, predictions abound that the Gaultier’s collection will be based on Madonna’s ‘Confessions’ Tour. After all, the French couturier is dressing Madge for her current world tour. Jean Paul Gaultier gave his audience that and more, sending artistic, highly desirable and still very wearable pieces on the runway.

Take the silver bustier for instance. Created with filigree encrusted with gems, it is a work of art, a piece of jewelry and a garment at the same time! Worn with wide-legged pants, and black opera gloves that were embroidered with silver thread, it can easily be the centerpiece of the whole collection.

Yet, it is just ONE of the many that someone will crave to have. The brown bustier-inspired gown emphasizing the shoulders and waist with its taut bodice flared fluidly below the hip area, sinuously floating as the model walked. It’s meant for an urban princess, innocent and sophisticated at the same time, perfect for a debutante to wear at the Crillon Ball held in Paris every year.

Detractors of haute couture claim that the craft are now reserved for the aging baby boomers, and that the echo boomer generation will have a hard time relating to it. With this collection, Jean Paul Gaultier disproved that. He touched the youth’s psyche and in turn their zeitgeist – their need to be different, yet be part of the norm, as they were all raised to be team players.

Think about it; if the echo boomer generation were made aware of haute couture as hip and young, they can be the new market for the made-to-measure craft. Problem is that they have been made to believe that it is staid and old, and something that their mothers would wear.

Jean Paul Gaultier broke new grounds in fashion with this collection, showing that haute couture can be hip and young; that a baby boomer mother can go to fittings together with her teen-age or twenty-something daughter as both of them are wearing something from this collection.

Because, while Jean Paul Gaultier created pieces to include the debutantes, he also made sure that the mothers will be dressed accordingly. The light gray double-breasted suit set worn by Erin O’Connor featured a jet-black fully beaded turtleneck blouse inside. With the trousers cut wide, taking off the suit jacket turns it into eveningwear.

In fact, the 36-pieces shown all have a timeless and ageless quality about it. Maybe, Madonna inspired Jean Paul Gaultier in more ways than one. Madge became a music icon during the 1980s, when the parents of the echo boomer generation were still young.

With Madonna’s ‘Confessions’ Tour, both mother and daughter are watching her, the generation gap bridged by the American singer. Jean Paul Gaultier also bridged that gap in terms of fashion!

Jean Paul Gaultier

Jean Paul Gaultier

Jean Paul Gaultier

Jean Paul Gaultier