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Jean-Paul Gaultier is French haute couture and pret-a-porter designer.

He was born in 1952 in Arcuiel, Val-de-Marnne, France. Growing up, he was
always interested in fashion. At just 13, he would design clothes for his
mother and grandmother. He would often peruse various fashion magazines
looking for inspiration, and he started to create his own collections. Later, he
sent off his sketches to numerous Parisian designers and on his eighteenth
birthday got a job working as an assistant for Pierre Cardin. There he learned
how to formally design outfits. After his first year with Cardin, he went to
work for Jean Patou where he became influenced by Yves Saint Laurent. After
working with Patou for a while, he went back to Cardin then later went on to
design in the Philippines.
Gaultier created his first line and had his first runway show in 1976 in
Paris. With the help of his partner Frances Mengue and financial backing from
Kashiyama, a Japanese clothing company, they were able to establish the
Gaultier brand. He opened his design house in 1982. Gaultiers style has
been more eccentric than the average designer. His inspiration came not
only from designers such as Yves Saint Laurent but punk and street styles as
well. He wanted erase the line between mens and womens clothing to
create a more androgynist look; he created skirts for men and had women
wear leather jackets, skirts, and sneakers as an outfit. In addition to skirt for
men, he loved the nautical look for them as well. He often dons blue and
white striped-sweaters, and his cologne has the trademark male silhouette
with varying colors of stripes.

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Gaultier quickly became the bad boy of the fashion industry with his
risky clothing and androgynist look. Since he was young he liked the looked
of his grandmothers corsets, so in 1983 he created the corset dress which
put undergarments front and center. He was also the mastermind behind
Madonnas iconic conical bras that she wore for her 1990 Blond Ambition
tour. Because of his daring choice to put undergarments on the outside, he
was able to use his imagination when it came to the costume designs for
movies such as The City of Lost Children and The Fifth Element. This led to
him creating his first couture line in 1997.
Recently, he has not been so much of a bad boy but he is still highly
influential in the fashion world. He stopped working for Hermes in 2011 and
Puig, A Spanish perfume and fashion company bought a 60 percent stake in
his company. Though he no longer works for Hermes, he became the creative
director for Coke in 2012. He is also expanding his line to include more
fragrances and a childrens line. He is the favorite designer to many
celebrities such as Naomi Watts, Marion Cotillard, and Nicole Kidman who
wore one his dresses to accept the Best Actress honors at the 2003 Academy
Awards. He continues to create costumes like those for Kylie Minogues X
Tour and for the films Bad Education and The Skin I Live In.
I chose to do Jean-Paul Gaultier because I already had some knowledge
of him due to a project I had in French class in 12th grade. When I did the
project then, I was impressed by how weird he was not afraid to be. He took
risks and chances that at the time he was coming were very rare if it even

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happened at all. I also liked that he never lost sight of who he was though he
easily could have to conform to the masses. He is a very unconventional
designer who can make many people raise their eyebrows and wonder why
anyone would dare to dress that way, which is what makes so unique.
Watching his runway shows do often make me wonder how his creations can
be made into ready to wear fashion but his clothes are an art form, and
whether they are right off the runway or tamed a bit they will still be
eccentric, and they will need to be worn by someone who has the confidence
and the I dont care attitude needed to accessorize the clothing.

Citation
Jean-Paul Gaultier. (n.d.). Retrieved February 02, 2016, from
http://www.biography.com/people/jean-paul-gaultier-9307775