Jean Paul Gaultier

Jean Paul Gaultier began in Paris in 1976, establishing a fashion house that challenged the social rules attached to clothes. Its founder drew on street culture and historical dress, bringing theatrical ideas into contact with everyday garments. A sailor’s striped shirt could become as expressive as a tailored suit, depending on who wore it and how it was styled.

Menswear gave Gaultier a setting in which to question the limits of a conventional wardrobe. Skirts for men, corsetry and transparent fabrics challenged assumptions about gender, while tailoring provided a recognizable structure around those experiments. The clothes invited men to treat dress as a choice about identity, extending the possibilities of what a masculine silhouette could be.

The house’s visual language became widely recognizable through nautical stripes and tattoo imagery. Fragrance later brought those ideas to another audience, notably through Le Male, launched in 1995. Even in that different form, the male torso and the sailor remained connected to the fashion that had established the name.

Gaultier presented his final couture show in 2020, after which the house invited a succession of guest designers to interpret its archive. Duran Lantink was appointed permanent creative director in 2025, taking responsibility for ready-to-wear and haute couture. His appointment opened a new chapter for a Paris house built on changing expectations about the relationship between body and clothing.