Before you step into Jean Paul Gaultier’s Paris Couture Week show, you must prepare to enter his world. Jean Paul Gaultier is one of the most singularly fixated designers in the industry. No designer imprints himself more on his collections than Gaultier. As such, you must trust his process because his mind is an infinite imaginatorium where theatre is created from mere fabrics. This season, he combined two silver screen influences: Pete Doherty (not the Doherty you know with a heroin glaze and a cigarette dribbling from his pouty lips, but the Doherty who stars in Confessions of a Child of the Century) and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. As such, futuristic warrior princesses share equal stage time with dandy ringmaster types.

Androgyny rules the first half of the show, both literally and figuratively. Andrej Peijic was tapped to be the star, sent forward in some of the more seductive and enticing looks. Tuxedo jackets, corset bustiers, high-waisted trousers and top hats were among the more masculine pieces. However, Gaultier favored complex structures, layers, and tailoring later on in the show, which made for some exquisitely wrought Couture pieces. He experimented with deconstructionism (as he is wont to do) in the form of half-finished dresses and jackets with sheer panels, but his best looks were the more polished. For instance, a dreamy sherbert, mint and lemon dip-dyed chubby fur jacket topped a breathtaking drop-waist gown. Gaultier’s world works like a hall of mirrors to distort, exaggerate, but ultimately, flatter.

written by GRACE GORDON|photos: courtesy of GoRunway