There was always special about Jean Paul Gaultier. Still is...His natural sense of wit and spirit marked him out in the tight-lipped world of fashion and he regarded his creations as seriously playful. His historical knowledge was immense as was his sense of time-honoured chic and many designers seem to forget that they are creating clothes for people not shifts for angels. From the design of his boutiques to his iconic label, the attraction to him as an artist was magnetic indeed. With the label in mind, it remains iconic, his first two Christian names (sometimes hyphenated) had the 'Gaultier' in bold and at an angle which looked or seemed so as a pointe finale - almost like the stamp of a warehouse on a wooden box bound for foreign shores.
I had met the master of couture and pret a porter on many occasions and interviewed him too. His charm was a delight and that famous smile adding a mythical quality to an already handsome and unusual face. He dressed in the main, simply and often sported a horizontally striped Breton sailor's T-Shirt or Sweatshirt which over time, became something synonymous with him as say, a golden cherub face was with Versace or the black and white silhouette a la Karl Lagerfeld. Paul Smith has his rows of rainbows and Bella Freud her greyhound head stamp but Gaultier's reference to a very French identity was instantly communicable and fresh, simple and elegant at the same time - akin in so many ways to say, Audrey Hepburn in Capri pants and ballet flats. It was the mixture of simplicity and complex imagination, seen especially in his couture pieces that saw him the star of the show in several magazines, exhibitions and museum presentations. Gaultier sponsored the 2003-2004 show at the Costume Institute of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, entitled, 'Braveheart: Men in Skirts', featuring amongst others, Dries van Noten, Vivienne Westwood and Rudi Gernreich and in 2011, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in collaboration with the Maison Jean Paul Gaultier organized a retrospective display - 'The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier.'
Gaultier's boutique parties were a hoot and the place readily thronged to by admirers and collectors, writers and indeed...other designers. There was something compelling about each of his collections, especially the Autumn/Winter offerings. Needless to say that the price tags were (reassuringly!) expensive. But their construction could not make them any cheaper and the fabrics used, especial and unusual. I recall my first JPG suit vividly from the 1980s. It hangs on the wall of my bedroom with a Gaultier hanger as a piece of art. It was not in the sale and cost a fortune. It featured a front of embroidered floral motifs in sage green on a darker green background and the back of the jacket was a rush of velvet stripes to resemble corduroy, in yet another shade of green. The jacket could be closed at the beck to reveal a black velvet strip of a collar which reminded of a Mao garment, turning what essentially was a piece inspired by French or English eighteenth century drawing room interior compositions into an Eastern statement of humorous military intent.
Whenever it was possible (and this time at sale time!) I ventured to one of his London shops and always came out with something...a springy, Chanel-esque boxy cardigan with brass miliary buttons a dinner jacket with sporty puffed up lapels, a long coat with huge woven tartan of raspberry, turquoise and on a ground of white - so very West Ham(!) an umbrella with a square top and on one occasion a silk satin jacket in tea brown, festooned with glittering blooms (black hidden collar again) and broad shoulders. I wore this piece to one of his lectures at an opening ceremony, to celebrate his creativity and as he left the stage and walked up the ramp to the show, he pointed particularly at me and the jacket, his jacket and said most volubly 'I remember zat one!!!' This must only remind of the designer's appearances with a heavy French accent on 'Eurotrash' with co-presenter, Antoine de Caunes starting in 1993 and ending in 1997. He also released a fun dance single, 'How to To That' New avenues, new possibilities were always attractive to this talented designer All, after all, is a form of expression...My one purchase regret was not securing that jacket splashed with Assyrian symbols of bearded, human-headed bulls in a walking row (like the ones you meet in the British Museum) - toffee brown on Teal silk. It was in the window of his South Molton Street boutique for moments before being snatched up! But king's ransom it was...Although I did venture back on another occasion and bought a light black mackintosh in the sale (£!0) because the back vent was ripped. It wasn't the same as the jewel-hued court jacket (and before you wonder, yes, with Mao collar!) but it was from his Maison...It felt like a little treasure in his glossy bag.
Jean Paul Gaultier was born in 1952 which makes his design endeavours all the more note- worthy, given his comparative 'youth.' Creating his own ready to wear brand in 1976, he turned to the real love of his creative life - haute couture where he could explore more, the artistry that dwelt so comfortably within. And as almost all true haute couture pieces are by nature of design, commissioned pieces, 'one-offs', we really are considering works of art - paintings meeting sculptures. His understanding of fabrics was so tangible and desirable that they shone from catwalk to nightclub. He was the creative director of Hermes from 2003 to 2010 and then wanted to concentrate on perfumery, to all so familiar in their torso shaped bottles with a definite nod to Elsa Schiaparelli's vessels which made her a global name as of course, did her surreal expression of town suits and ballgowns with painted or embroidered, spangled motifs. It must be clear that Gaultier was an admirer. He must love her iconoclastic outlook.
Conveniently perhaps, Gaultier from the earliest days, was referred to as the enfant terrible of Fashion. He quickly made his name with the art of corsetry, marinieres and of course is so well known for making Madonna's conical bra for the 1990 Blonde Ambition tour. In addition, he created the costumes for amongst other films, 'The Fifth Element', 'Bad Education' and perhaps most famously, 'The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover.' Other stars fell under Gaultier's spell including Bjork, Marilyn Manson, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Kylie Minogue, Katy Perry and Solange Knowles. Experimenting with a panoply of materials from Arctic white lace to grass (to resemble feathers), everyday silks and satins (but not really everyday!), tailoring wools to Tartan, he let his imagination run wild and all who had eyes to experience, indeed, this 'enfant terrible' understood motive - not madness. The circus was often (as it was for Schiaparelli) a source of inspiration - glossy top hats, capes, high-buttoning waistcoats, scarlet gowns on handsome men.
Perhaps it would be correct to say that Gaultier was among the first designers to show unconventional models sporting his garb. Older men, larger women, pierced and tattooed models and gender-bending individuals festooned his shows which to some observers, bordered on the 'freaky'. But this was part of the point of the display of the unusual. He also adored the immediacy of street/sportswear, something that today is rather a second visual language to so many experimenting with personal, wearable style and conveying modernistic ideas and accessibility. His many labels included, apart from the boutique-chic Jean Paul Gaultier itself, Gaultier PARIS (Couture Collection), JEAN'S Paul Gaultier, JPGand of course, the perfume/fragrance labels - Classique, Fragile, Ma Dame, Le Male, Scandal, Monsieur and Gaultier Eau d'Amour.
On one of the last meetings I had with Gaultier to conduct another interview (and I so hope that it won't be the last) I had the week before been involved in a car accident - not my fault! I was wearing an arm cast, pristinely white and fresh and Gaultier (being Gaultier) snatched up a black felt pen and proceeded to draw a sailor's head (more self portrait, I thought) accompanied by his wonderful autograph. Coincidentally, this was the week (as if to make up for Fate's smashing me around) that I was scheduled to meet and interview Desmond Morris and the artist Arman who had flown in from New York for his vernissage at the Cork Street exhibition space, The Mayor. Arman is principally known for creating art performances by setting fire to violins and smashing them up. Arman scrawled a drawing of a broken arm with the legend - 'Broken but not by Arman'! Instantly, when the director saw it had been signed and drawn on by Arman and accompanied by Gaultier's and so many celebrities' names, he asked to buy it then and there!
I still have it...!