French luxury house Jean Paul Gaultier enlisted Y/Project‘s artistic director Glenn Martens to design its Spring/Summer 2022 Haute Couture collection. Martens is the second guest couturier to do so in a series of planned seasonal takeovers of the brand, following Sacai’s Chitose Abe’s premiere turn last season.
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Having collaborated with Jean Paul Gaultier in 2008 – Glenn Martens was recruited by Gaultier as junior designer for his women’s Pre-collection and the G2 men’s label in 2008, when he was graduated from Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts – the Belgian designer returned to revive and rehashed Gaultier stereotypes in the Y/Project aesthetic while remaining true to Gaultier heritage.
Known for his experimental takes on clothing construction, Martens went gaga for gowns. Most were sexy, body-hugging columns with lively surface treatments: here layers of optical tiger stripes; there a mash-up of lace and ribbons trapped under tulle.
“I am only doing this for one season, so it’s not like I have to envision a whole new future for the house; that’s a very different exercise”, Martens said. “This is a celebration of Gaultier. I’ve stayed close to the woman Jean Paul created in the past – pure diva goddess beauty, hips, whatever, all that drama he loved. I’m building on that through what I think of his iconic Gaultier moments. This marinière… it’s so him, but I completely fucked it up with all the fake coral spikes. I’m reinventing those iconic moments in my own way”.
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©Jean Paul Gaultier
