DRESS LIKE JEAN PAUL The new ready-to-wear collection by Jean Paul Gaultier

Back to basics! Drawing inspiration from its founder’s own style, Maison Jean Paul Gaultier unveils a collection that revisits two iconic garments from its history. The ad campaign, shot by Grant-James Thomas, features Alexis Stone taking up the role of Jean Paul Gaultier.

1994. Jean-Marie Périer photographed Jean Paul Gaultier wearing a kilt and a marinière in a hotel room, for ELLE magazine. He captured a quintessential image of Gaultier that remains, nearly 30 years later, representative of the designer’s heritage in the collective unconscious. All along the 1980s, Jean Paul Gaultier played with the stripes of the tricot rayé, applying them on dresses adorned with sequins, feathers and crystals. Committed to his art, he even gave the final salute at his 1997 show wearing not one but two marinières!

Borrowed from the wardrobe of sailors, this piece of uniform became a celebrated fashion item and was featured in the Maison’s collections throughout the years. Similarly, the Scottish kilt – that Jean Paul Gaultier wears both in daily life and on catwalks – has been featured ever since the first menswear collections, which were deliberately genderless and for everyone to enjoy. During the 1990s, Maison Jean Paul Gaultier also debuted one of its signature materials: stretch tulle, on which was based the “Soleil” line. Today, the marinière and the kilt – the two most iconic garments of Maison Jean Paul Gaultier – fuse with each other to create a collection that is resolutely like Jean Paul.

Echoing the 1984 ready-to-wear collection “Homme Objet”, the Maison explores the universe of sailors with a limited selection of exclusive garments that celebrate inclusiveness, to be worn separately or together, and featuring customizable tags waiting to be filled out, sewn on the outside of the marinière. And since we are proud of our Made in France marinière, we say so with hearts! A re-issue from the 2001 “Mort à Venise” collection, a huge cut-out heart weaved in the cotton jersey itself has been applied on our genderless marinière. In terms of accessories, the famous sailor tattoo combining a heart and an anchor has become a silver pendant necklace. Inspired by the film “Querelle”, adapted from Jean Genet’s novel in which a young sailor charms everybody around him, and released in theaters in 1982, a cotton tank top with a low scoop neckline hint at the genderfluid sex-appeal of the main protagonist.

DRESS LIKE JEAN PAUL by wearing a stretch tulle gown printed with a trompe l’oeil of Jean Paul Gaultier’s famous look from 1994. Other trompe l’oeil prints that typically represent the Maison have been applied on garments: transparent tops appear full of cracks, a black cotton jersey T-shirt is printed with a marinière. The kilt, made of traditional Scottish tartan, is presented in its original version and in many other variations, from stretch tulle variants to swimwear. For this collection, Maison Jean Paul Gaultier has pushed further what it explored in the 1996 “Cyberbaba” collection, curving the marinière’s stripes as if using morphing. The outfits, made of stretch tulle or stretchable jacquard knit, are ready to slip in for a liberated body and an enhanced silhouette.

Illusion or fiction? The ad campaign presents an alternative reality where the Gaultier myth and special effects collide, in line with Jean Paul Gaultier’s worldview. Shot by Grant-James Thomas in the Halles neighborhood of Paris, it features a true-to-life Jean Paul Gaultier character wandering in the streets that the designer favors. All of a sudden, the twist is revealed: the model is none other than Alexis Stone, the expert of physical transformations. Able to imitate the most famous celebrities, his performing talents as an artist and a drag queen allow him to transform into different leading figures of pop culture. For DRESS LIKE JEAN PAUL, Alexis Stone turns into the iconic Jean Paul Gaultier.

“ I HAVE ALWAYS PERCEIVED THE WORK OF JEAN PAUL GAULTIER AS FREE AND ASSUMED. HIS CREATIONS ENCOURAGE YOU TO BE YOURSELF, WHOEVER YOU ARE. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT FASHION SHOULD INSPIRE WHEN IT IS DONE WELL. AND THAT'S WHY TRANSFORMING MYSELF INTO JEAN PAUL GAULTIER WAS EASY, BECAUSE I SEE MYSELF IN THIS COMMUNITY THAT HE HAS CREATED.” — ALEXIS STONE