Jean Paul Gaultier

Jean Paul Gaultier (born 24 June 1952) is a French haute couture and prêt-à-porter fashion designer.

He is described as an "enfant terrible" of the fashion industry and is known for his unconventional designs with motifs including corsets, Marinières, and tin cans.

Pierre Cardin was impressed by his talent and hired him as an assistant in 1970.

Then he worked with Jacques Esterel in 1971 and Jean Patou later that year again worked for Cardin managing the Pierre Cardin boutique in Manila for a year until 1974.

Despite Gaultier's youth, Cardin sent him to Manila to manage the local office.

Imelda Marcos was one of his clients.

He found himself on a "no leave" list and had to pretend to have a family emergency in order to leave.

He never returned.

Gaultier's first individual collection was released in 1976.

Although most people found his designs decadent at the time, fashion editors, notably Melka Tréanton of Elle, Claude Brouet and Catherine Lardeur of French Marie Claire, were impressed by his creativity and mastery of tailoring, and later launched his career.

In 1980, he designed women's dresses out of plastic trash bags.

At the end of the 1980s he invented a new look for the French accordionist Yvette Horner which relaunched her career.

At the end of the 1980s, Gaultier suffered some personal losses, and in 1990 his boyfriend and business partner, Francis Menuge, died of AIDS-related causes.

It is also around that time that he decided to tone down his showmanship and started to plan more intimate events.

Gaultier founded his eponymous fashion label in 1982, and expanded with a line of fragrances in 1993.

Gaultier founded his eponymous fashion label in 1982.

His 1983 collection "Boy Toy" relaunched the Marinière for men.

His garments were on sale at Bergdorf Goodman in New York as soon as 1984, and already lauded by Dawn Mello and Polly Allen Mellen.

The term "Gaultiered" was coined to describe the classic pieces that were reinterpreted by the designer.

During the 1984 Fall London and Paris shows, Jean Paul Gaultier introduced his line of skirts for men (actually kilts), a breakthrough in men's fashion that stirred a bit of controversy.

In 1984 he also introduced the iconic women's corset with cone bra.

Gaultier has also worked in close collaboration with Wolford Hosiery.

By 1985, his company made $50 million in sales worldwide.

In the 1985 movie Desperately Seeking Susan, Madonna wore a skirt with men's suspenders she had bought from Gaultier.

Besides his ready-to-wear collection, in 1988 Gaultier expanded his brand to include the label Junior Gaultier, a lower-priced line of products.

The Junior Gaultier outfit was selected by Jeff Banks as the Dress of the Year.

In 1988, he also recorded the music video How to do that.

In 1990, he designed Madonna's clothes for her Blond Ambition World Tour.

Gaultier Jean's, a similar line consisting mainly of denim and more simply styled garments with a heavy street influence, followed in 1992, which was then replaced with Jean's Paul Gaultier from 2004 to 2008.

Aside from his work in the fashion industry, Gaultier co-presented the first seven series of the television series Eurotrash with Antoine de Caunes from 1993–1997.

Gaultier grew up in a suburb of Paris.

His mother was a clerk and his father an accountant.

It was his maternal grandmother, Marie Garrabe, who introduced him to the world of fashion.

He never received formal training as a designer.

Instead, he began to send sketches to famous couture stylists at an early age.

Gaultier launched a line of fragrances (Classique) in 1993.

The Junior Gaultier label was replaced in 1994 with JPG by Gaultier, a unisex collection that followed the designer's idea of fluidity of the sexes.

In 1998, Jean Paul Gaultier's company generated €12.9 million ($13.2 million) in sales.

He was the creative director for French luxury house Hermès from 2003 to 2010, and retired following his 50th-anniversary haute couture show during Paris Fashion Week in January 2020.

Junior Gaultier's name was reused in 2009 for the launching of the child's wear, to be completed with a Baby Line in 2011.