On the second day of Paris Couture Week, Jean Paul Gaultier dazzled with a sleek but stunning collection. A sober, monochrome palette seemed in keeping with the spirit of these times, but Gaultier’s fastidious attention to embroidery, print and sumptuous fabrics cast a ray of light on the star studded audience all the same.
Kylie Minogue, Lou Doillon and icon Catherine Deneuve all put in an appearance, while fifty one year old model-turned-designer Ines de la Fressange (huge in France) strutted her stuff on the catwalk after a decade’s absence.
Sharp tailoring was characteristically present, with strong shoulders countered by fluid shapes in chiffon, lace and fishnet. Elaborate patterns were cut away in swathes or ran the length of an arm or torso.
Influences spanned bullfighting, corsetry and Chinese calligraphy and Gaultier’s final creation, a sheer deconstructed wedding dress, was feather light and skeletal, stripped away to a basic French ‘ooh la la.’
