Jean-Paul Gaultier announces that next couture show will be his last

By

Anaïs Lerévérend

Published
Jan 17, 2020

Jean Paul Gaultier is stepping away from the catwalk. The brand's eponymous designer announced the news via social media on Friday, 17 January: the maison's next couture show, scheduled for 22 January, will celebrate the couturier's 50th anniversary in fashion, but it will also be his last.

In a short, undramatic video, Gaultier explains that his brand will live on, but that it will be run under a new concept.

The maison, which has belonged to Spanish group Puig – initially a perfume specialist – since 2011, already called time on its ready-to-wear activities, and therefore on the line's runway shows, in 2014. From then on the label has only presented the couture shows so dear to its founder, which have featured on the official Paris calendar since 1997.

In his announcement, Gaultier said the following: "Gaultier Paris will continue, Haute Couture will continue, I have a new concept," promising to give further details at a later date. The brand has since confirmed that its designer is indeed implementing a new project. In between times, he has promised a grand party at Paris' Théâtre du Châtelet, which will host his runway show on 22 January. 

Gaultier, who has always had a foot – maybe even two – in the world of show business, has therefore taken another step back from the traditional fashion calendar. His brand, whose operations are now focused principally on its range of perfumes, will not, however, go on without him and his strong public image.

The designer, who continues in his role as the label's creative director, was busy organising a successful eight-month run of his revue, Fashion Freak Show, at the Folies Bergères, in Paris, until June of last year, a show which attracted some 250,000 spectators.