Legends of silver screen stalk the catwalk
Jean Paul Gaultier lived up to his showman’s reputation again at Paris Couture Week July 8. For his latest collection he staged a cinematic spectacle. Each area of the auditorium was named after a film studio, girls handed out ice creams and the show began with the Twentieth Century Fox fanfare.
In case the audience members were still in any doubt about the celluloid concept, the outfits were also named after films and actresses. Many of these interpretations were about as subtle – and often as raunchy – as Jane Russell’s décolletage in The Outlaw, but they were intentionally entertaining.
The first look, named after the film Le Mepris, consisted of a leather trenchcoat and seamed stockings worn by pouting model Lara Stone, who had her blonde hair in a beehive and lashings of eyeliner just like the film’s star Brigitte Bardot. Other ensembles included a Battleship Potemkin look, which consisted of quilted taffeta sailor trousers and a cropped pea coat, and a futuristic gold leather corset dubbed Barbarella and made from 3D dodecahedron panels.
