It’s easy to say camp. Now everybody wants to be camp, because be extra means be cool. Then, Jean Paul Gaultier arrives on the stage and remembers to all of us how to make it happen.
Fantasy is not lacking, neither the volonté to try. There are some sacre elements which become profane, geometrical shapes perfectly blending with the human body, which together create futuristic hybrids. There is for sure a sort of deep fascination for technologies, future and aliens. There is the willing to have fun and to be irreverent, to make confusion. So, colours are mixed together loudly, with plenty of acid notes that make every outfit over the top. Animalier pattern meets psychedelic polka dots of various dimension, creating optical illusion on the female bodies. There are feathers and fake fur. Some tailleurs, classic in fabrics and colours, are then exaggerated with amazing shapes: trousers reach armpit, collars are high as much as that they cover the head, shoulders are pointed.
Either you love or you hate it. Because everything Jean Paul Gaultier does, he does it at the limit: there are no half measures and there are no grey spaces in between. What is sure is that his creations always pay homage to haute couture in its deepest meaning, which is to drive high tailoring to its limits, to imagine unimaginable things, to see what is the final point fashion is able to reach without falling on its own.
Words by Giulia Greco