An enfant terrible has appeared in a new guise, as designer Olivier Routeing of Balm ain took a one-off shot at a couture collection for the house of Jean Paul Gaultier.
PARIS (AP) — An enfant terrible appeared in a new guise on Wednesday as designer Olivier Rousting of Balm ain took a one-off shot at a couture collection for the house of Jean Paul Gaultier.
Such was the excitement surrounding the event that roads were blocked and security stretched over 100 yards, tangling traffic in all directions. The show was fashionably late. That may have had something to do with Kim Kardashian. She arrived tardily with her daughter North West in outfits referencing the 1992 heyday of Madonna and Gaultier, who sat in the front row sipping champagne and laughing almost all the way through.
Here are some highlights of the fall-winter 2022 couture collections:
Taking the codes of Gaultier -- such as structured tailoring, Breton striped nautical tops and the conical bra -- Rousting let his hair down on Wednesday for an infectious and tongue-in-cheek fashion homage to Jean Paul Gaultier, who retired from couture in 2020 after a 50-year runway career.
It was all about the quirk. Rousting took Gaultier’s torso-shaped perfume bottle “Le Male,” which features a metal strap under the nozzle -- and turned it into several looks. Garnering applause from the enthusiastic audience, one model strutted forth with a metal choker, striped glass top and tin micro mini. Elsewhere, the famed pinstriped menswear tuxedo jacket, with voluminous proportions, was reimagined beneath a body-shaped corset.
There were genuinely touching moments, such as when two models walked together in pregnant conical bra looks in black and flesh, touching their bellies. That was seen as a political statement supporting lesbians having medically assisted reproduction, something the French parliament allowed last year.
Beyond homage, this couture was definitely very Rousting. He fused his personal styles upon the Gaultier house codes and many of the styles -- flowing capes, caps and layering -- captured ones seen before on the Balm ain runway.
In purely aesthetic terms, many of the looks veered off into pastiche or costume. Nobody seemed to mind.
KARDASHIAN DOES MADONNA
A blond Kardashian and daughter spurred a dazzle of paparazzi snaps walking up the stone steps of central Paris’ Gaultier HQ dressed in the image of Madonna when she controversially appeared — with exposed breasts — with Jean Paul Gaultier at a 1992 Ammar, fundraiser in Los Angeles, California.
The styling was flawless in this homage, in which Kardashian channeled the pinstriped Gaultier dress that at the time spawned headlines around the world. Kardashian’s version here was more tame, with skin-colored inserts. West wore a waistcoat, like the couturier did as he held hands with his then best friend, for whom he designed several garments including the conical bra look for the singer’s Blond Ambition tour.
The old Gaultier faithful, such as Spanish actress and muse Ross de Palma, were out in force to support the effort — alongside a speckling of Ru Paul Drag Race stars, including Simone and Gigi Goode.
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