Overseas People
Designer John Paul Gaultier brilliant as ever at French Fashion Week
A model presents a creation designed by French Jean-Paul Gaultier, 20 January 2003, in Paris for his Spring-Summer 2003 Haute Couture collection. The entire fashion world will join forces on January 22nd night to support the fight against HIV-AIDS, with French fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier and former top model Ines de la Fressange set to host a charity dinner to benefit research and AIDS prevention programs. AFP PHOTO Pierre VERDY
PARIS, (AFP) - John Galliano on Monday ignited Paris haute couture week with his spring-summer 2003 collection for Christian Dior, embarking on a fanciful trip to the Land of the Rising Sun, while Jean-Paul Gaultier served up his own brand of irreverent elegance.
After nearly a two-hour wait for the first major show of the week to begin, a troupe of Asian martial artists kitted out in traditional red and black stormed down the Dior runway, twirling nunchakus and staffs at breakneck speed.
A bevy of lanky modern geishas, sporting layers of white pancake foundation and pouting with crimson lips, then paraded down the catwalk in impossibly high platform stilettos to a steady percussive thump.
Volume was the key word at Dior. Silk and taffeta dresses and coats in a rainbow of hues, often elaborately embroidered or adorned with handpainted designs.
The work of British milliner Stephen Jones added to the flight of fancy, with several meter-wide (three-foot-wide) circular hats covered in feathers or a headpiece topped with a whimsical pair of daisies.
Not to be outdone, French designer Jean-Paul Gaultier combined elegance with irreverence in a collection that once again demonstrated his love of fine craftsmanship and his passion for haute couture.
His spring-summer line included several quirky nods to the past. Buttons were everywhere, whether adorning a hemline or covering a chic pant suit. The legendary striped sailor sweater was this time transformed into a combined cardigan-hat with a never-ending collar that doubled as headgear. Corsets became veritable castings of the female body, worn over dresses.
But beyond his playful flair, Gaultier is also a master at creating impeccably tailored suits with double-breasted jackets or skirts slit high enough to reveal delicate lace underneath.
Some of Gaultier's long gowns -- such as one in pleated fuchsia chiffon -- conjured up images of the work of Yves Saint Laurent, who retired last year.
But others were definitely in the Gaultier
tradition of transforming women into true heroines of old, such
as a blood-red chiffon dress adorned with ropes of silver.