Initial reaction:
We were all invited to the white wedding of Jean Paul Gaultier, to celebrate his union with haute couture – now his exclusive runway playground. The bride and the groom were ever-present – sometimes merged into one. Other important characters for any ceremony were also there: the mother of the bride, the eccentric wedding guests who have had too much to drink (that would be Anna Cleveland, daughter of Pat, in a turquoise strapless number). You even had a walking bouquet of flowers in the form of Naomi Campbell. Evidently Gaultier was at his most jubilant and so, unsurprisingly, a good time was had by all.
Crowd pleaser:
Jean Paul Gaultier has always swept the crowds away with interesting casting choices, and this show was no different. He brought out modelling legends like Violeta Sanchez, Axelle Doué and Christine Bergström – recently put under the spotlight by Olivier Saillard’s New York performance of Models Never Talk. Naomi Campbell closed the show dressed up as a grand bouquet – with orchids and foliage just about covering the bare necessities. These women were bona fide muses to the créme de la créme of designers. All of them sashayed, posed and spun around to a raucous audience, who threw their bouquets, left on the seats at the beginning of the show, on to the runway.
Haute couture:
Yes, the show opened with Anna Cleveland as a crazed bride with rollers in her hair. Yes, Lindsey Wixson was dressed up as a denim and tulle beekeeper. But for the most part, this was Gaultier asserting his position as a designer with an eye for supreme construction and tailoring. Tuxedos dominated the opening passage, to then hybridise with a cocktail dress. Exposed pannier caging and corsetry saw Gaultier in familiar territory. With Haute Couture now being Gaultier’s sole offering to the fashion world by way of clothing, it felt less like he was doing theatrics for the sake of it – and more like a proposal of real clothes for the outlandish creatures of this world.
