KNWLS and Florence Tétier on their ‘perfect’ Jean Paul Gaultier collab

This article was originally published in August 2023. Revisit it now as the full collection goes on sale.

The first time Charlotte Knowles, Alexandre Arsenault, and Florence Tétier met,  Tétier ended up sleeping on the KNWLS designers’ couch. 

First introduced to the pair by mutual collaborator, stylist Georgia Pendlebury, Tétier was in town to drop off the jewellery she had made for the then-fledgling brand, and an immediate friendship was formed. “It was back when we were at the beginning of the brand and we had no money,” laughs Arsenault. “Georgia would be in the spare room, so there was no other space.” 

Since then, they’ve remained close as their respective stars ascended, with KNWLS rebranding and basically becoming one of the hottest brands in the world, and Tetier taking over the house of Jean Paul Gaultier after the man himself retired. Across the course of the last few years, the JPG creative director has called up the likes of Glenn Martins, Ottolinger, and Alan Crocetti and asked the creatives to put their own spin on Gaultier’s mammoth archive.

For those who haven’t put two and two together yet, now it’s the turn of KNWLS to join forces with the French house and drop an uber-covetable collab. Announced today, the offering is set to land in September – meaning you’ve got some time to get saving. 

Though the designers unsurprisingly had a difficult time knowing where to begin when they were let loose in the archives, eventually they narrowed their points of reference down to tattoo prints from 2009, tailoring from Gaultier’s SS04 collection Homage à la Breauté des Rousses, and corsetry from Madonna’s 1990 Blond Ambition tour. How could they not? “Those looks are just so iconic, and I’m totally obsessed with Madonna,” says Knowles. 

With Tétier taking a hands-off approach and allowing the designers to do their thing, Knowles and Arsenault knew that the DNA of each brand needed to meet precisely in the middle – which she was confident about from the off, since threads of similarities – like an affinity for corsetry and lingerie, and making women feel powerful – already connect them. 

“For me, it was quite obvious KNWLS were a perfect fit – they’re true children of Gaultier” – Florence Tétier

“We didn’t want to pick something out and just make it in another fabric,” says Arsenault, and the resulting collection really does come together in perfect unison. There’s see-through mesh tops and second-skin trousers dotted with sailor tat serpents and ‘True Love’ hearts, washed denim corsetry trimmed with faux fur, and an enormous shearling coat Knowles confesses is a fave. “It’s so ridiculous, it gives so much drama,” she laughs. 

Similarly giving drama is Alex Consani, who joins the fold as the star of a Harley Weir-lensed campaign – and while you’ll have to wait until the collection’s September release date to see the full thing, Dazed has an exclusive sneak peek in the gallery above. “She gives no fucks, she has an amazing sense of humour, and she’s empowered by who she is,” says Arsenault. In other words, an ideal Gaultier model if ever there was one. 

Here, in an exclusive interview, Knowles, Arsenault, Tétier talk more about the collection.

Charlotte and Alex, let’s take it right back. Can you tell me about your first encounter with Jean Paul’s work? When did you first come across it, and what’s your earliest memory of seeing it? 

Charlotte Knowles: For me, I was always very into fashion, and he was one of the designers that I’ve always looked up to and followed from the earliest time. But I guess the first time I physically saw it was at the Barbican exhibition [in 2014], and I just remember being blown away by the craft and the detail – that is one of the main things I find so inspiring. It’s the level of the richness and the craft and the print and the materials and the creativity, but also the sense of humour paired with it. 

Alexandre Arsenault: I mean, I’ve seen The Fifth Element about 75 times, so definitely that. But I think the same actually – I think the first time I was really introduced to his work physically was at the same exhibition as it toured the world. I was in my first year of uni in Canada, like 20 or 21 or something. It came to Montreal, and we never get amazing things like that there, at least not then. It was incredible, it really blew my mind. 

It was an amazing exhibition! Do you have a favourite collection or a show of his then? 

Charlotte Knowles: Madonna’s Blond Ambition tour is just so iconic. To the point one of the dresses from it inspired one of the main pieces in our JPG collection. I’m totally obsessed with Madonna. 

Alexandre Arsenault: I guess we combined a lot of Jean Paul moments that we liked in the collection, although there were limitations because of the collection size.

“The first time I physically saw [Gaultier’s work] was at the Barbican exhibition [in 2014], and I just remember being blown away by the craft and the detail – that is one of the main things I find so inspiring” – Charlotte Knowles

Florence, why did you think KNWLS was right for a Gaultier collaboration? What values do the two brands share? 

Florence Tétier: So my job at Gaultier is to make sure his legacy is in the right hands. Like Alex explained, we already knew each other. I really truly believe that it’s important to support your inner circle or your close collaborators when you work on other projects. 

For me, it was quite obvious they were a perfect fit – they’re true children of Gaultier. You can see references in their work, even if it’s really true to them, and I think they are very close to the way he sees a certain type of women – this Amazonian kind of girl, one of the many characters of Gaultier. That’s what makes my job so inspiring - Gaultier has so many characters to choose from, which allows us to work with so many varied collaborators. And for this specific type of woman, KNWLS was the right choice. 

Charlotte and Alex, what was your reaction when Florence came to you and asked you to do a collection for the house then?

Charlotte Knowles: It was kind of mind-blowing [laughs]. 

Alexandre Arsenault: Yeah, and it’s the first big collaboration we’ve done as a brand. We’ve been going quite a few years now, and I feel like there were a few projects here and there that we considered. But when Florence was like “We need to do a collab”, like a proper, ready-to-wear collab, we were like “Yes! This needs to be the first.”

Charlotte Knowles: It just felt so… Not easy, but you know. I already have such a massive archive of JPG research, and I was just so excited to get started. We’ve done consultancy for other brands and it’s been great, but this was such an amazing opportunity. We were blown away. 

It must have given you so much confidence, as well, in that you know the brand inside-out when you were getting started. Coming into a huge house is surely quite a nerve-wracking thing. 

Charlotte Knowles: Actually because there is just so much history and so many amazing references that it was almost a bit overwhelming to begin with – because you’re like “Which thing do I go with?” In the end, we just felt like it was important to choose references that felt like they would be quite easy to blend between the brands to give the collection an easily understandable dialogue. 

Alexandre Arsenault: I think we really wanted to make sure that we didn’t do one of those collabs where we just pointed at things and said “Let’s make it in a different fabric”. We really wanted to understand how Jean Paul would think about things and what made his work so special, and then use that Jean Paul energy to create a world that was really right in the middle of JPG and KWNLS. 

There were already a lot of crossovers in the way we do things. When we started working with JPG we met the guy who used to hand-cut and do the collage for the prints, he’s still working down in the basement of the atelier. Back in the 80s and 90s you didn’t have a choice – you had to do everything by hand because there was no digital. That’s how we work at KNWLS, too – Harriet [senior print designer at KNWLS] does everything physically by hand, and then we digitise it for printing.

Florence Tétier: From a JPG perspective, I always try to think like, “What would Jean Paul do, if he was 30 or 35 now?” That doesn’t mean that we are only going to collaborate with 30-something people, but the whole purpose is to propose a new version of what he did. And I think they did an amazing job doing that, because it was really true to his values but still very relevant and very now. 

“When we started working with JPG we met the guy who used to hand-cut and do the collage for the prints, he’s still working down in the basement of the atelier. Back in the 80s and 90s you didn’t have a choice – you had to do everything by hand because there was no digital” – Alexandre Arsenault

And so onto the campaign. I love Alex Consani, so it’s amazing to see her as the JPG x KNWLS woman. Why did you want to get her involved? 

Alexandre Arsenault: I think for us, it had to be someone with a counterculture energy. She gives no fucks and she’s empowered by who she is. She has an amazing sense of humour, and of course, she represents the LGBTQ+ community, which is obviously so important to Jean Paul Gaultier, but also mega important to us. There are so many fucked up things happening in the UK and the US and around the world so it was important to use this platform and our voice to support people in this way.

Do you have a favourite look from the collection or is that like picking a fave kid? 

Charlotte Knowles: I love the shaggy shearling. It’s just the silhouette, it’s so ridiculous, it gives so much drama. And probably the washed denim corsets. 

Alexandre Arsenault: I also love lots of things with the tattoos. They were all hand-drawn and hand-cut onto cardboard by our print designer for her to be able to wax and print them so they’d have a really nice texture. It took her three months to do. 

Charlotte Knowles: Definitely a challenge. Creating all those artworks and figuring out where to place them on the pieces.

And what about the moment of truth. Has Jean Paul seen the collection now, and what did he think of it? 

Florence Tétier: He has seen a couple of the silhouettes in the progress and he was very happy about them. He basically lets us do whatever we want, it’s not like he has to approve anything. I’ve shown him a couple of the projects, this one included, and he liked them. He’s ordered some pieces for him and his friends. 

Alexandre Arsenault: I think he has probably also seen so many clothes. It’s like he probably doesn’t care that much about what it is until he sees the actual campaign [laughs].