For the bow-out runway show of French designer Jean Paul Gaultier, an incredible array of supermodels including the Hadid sisters (Gigi and Bella), Irina Shayk, Winnie Harlow, Coco Rocha, Jourdan Dunn, Yasmin Le Bon, Estelle Lefébure, Farida Khelfa, Karlie Kloss, Lily McMenamy, Karen Elson and Erin O’Connor alongside a catwalk newcomer Paris Jackson strutted the runway in what the designer calls his final runway couture creation.
Creative enough to have spent decades in the fashion industry, Gaultier is wholly considered a creative phenomenon patched with the description ‘groundbreaking’ by industry players he has worked with since his debut appearance 50 years ago, “I’ve known Jean Paul Gaultier for 25 years and he means so much to me. He is groundbreaking, creative and all things Rive Gauche. To be here tonight means the world to me,” said Elson.
The show aside its supermodels lineup included pop icons namely; Catherine Ringer of Les Rita Mitsouko and Boy George, who took to the runway as performers, whiles French cinema icon Béatrice Dalle and former Miss France and Miss Universe Iris Mittenare both represented the designer’s home country on the runway and again waved the flag for cinema and beauty pageant presence at the show.
French singer Amanda Lear walked the runway in a Billy Porter 2019 Met Gala appearance manner, as she was carried by two male models wearing red sequins.
For fifty years, Gaultier not only counts supermodels as his close friends and go-to customers; his client sheet is filled with heavy-weights from the world of music including Lady Gaga and Rihanna as well as Hollywood stars Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett.
The announcement of his final couture show came in last week when Gaultier himself stated that the city’s Théâtre du Châtelet (venue of the show at the Paris Fashion Week), would be a “party” to celebrate his decades in fashion.
He is described by Vogue as the designer who gave fashion sex, androgyny, corsetry, sailor stripes and most memorably a Madonna in a conical bra for her 1990 blonde ambition tour.
Gaultier signed out saying, “I am very joyful in reality.”
