PARIS — A sea of photographers and fans of the designer Jean-Paul Gaultier swarmed outside the celebrated designer’s Paris headquarters for his colorful couture show Wednesday. Held inside the splendidly restored white building that has long hosted some of the most fabulous, and many of the craziest, shows during Paris Fashion Week, his Fall/Winter 2015/2016 couture collection was no exception.
Gaultier, who has now dedicated himself to the art of couture, proved himself to be a showman to the last. The campy disco song “In The Navy” blared through the venue before the sound of bagpipes emerged from the far-end of the runway. Gaultier’s favorite maritime theme could be seen in the kinky striped blue-and-white tights, worn with dresses that resembled oversized aprons that might be worn in a royal kitchen, imprinted with the family’s coat of arms.
Another beautiful gold-and-black rounded design looked like a walking queen bee painted in gold, while the grand finale wedding dress was decked in lavish feathers. Some models wore what looked like sculptures made of hair, towering like buildings balanced on the top of their heads.
It seems Gaultier has inspired some followers on the couture catwalks, which feature not only some of the most expensive designs but also some of the most out-there. Despite what might be described as couture counterculture—or a thing for minimalism seen from some young couture designers like Bouchra Jarrar and Yiqing Yin—the big, crazy and colorful were everywhere you turned. “It is what my customers ask for,” designer Julien Fournie told The Daily Beast. “When Arabian princesses spend a lot of money on a dress they want something that makes a big impression. They want volume.”
Herewith, a selection of the most colorful and crazy looks from the couture shows 2015/2016 in Paris, which wrapped Thursday.
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First: one of Gaultier’s walking art pieces inspired by Bretagne that resembled a sea-faring lollipop.
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Gaultier’s grand finale wedding dress, which looked like a walking moth.
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At Julien Fornie’s show guests sat on some of the most uncomfortable seating in town, or rickety wooden church seats placed in long rows inside the cool stone Oratoire de Louvre, a Protestant church. Fournie wrapped his show with anything but a white wedding dress. Call it the black widow look, but his daring final dress, made of vinyl and velvet, looked like something from a Gothic wedding to be set in a graveyard, or walking bat wings.
Ralph & Russo, a few seasons ago, became the first British couture house to show on the official couture calendar in decades. Stars from Bollywood to Hollywood wear their pieces, and they create some of the biggest and most beautiful dresses on the catwalk. Here, a vibrant red dress which looked like a walking bed of roses.
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Giambattista Valli majored on flowers and florals—stunningly.
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In his first collection for Paris’s most eccentric house, Schiaparelli, the ex-Valentino designer Bertrand Guyon sent out some outlandish creations, like a pair of woolly-looking Tweed culottes worn with a cute fluffy waistcoat.
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Guyon also sent out shocking pink shoes and shocking pink dresses.
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Color popping at Armani, who served up a number of exquisite, decadent pink ensembles of his own.
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Charlie Le Mindu, the haute hair designer, showed hair in strange places and naked bodies in the most provocative show of the week.
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Versace went Boho showing corsets, skin, feathers, and flower chains.
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Kinky couture care of Serkan Cura.
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