Paris (AFP)

"Fifty brooms, brooms!" Jean Paul Gaultier, the terrible child of fashion hung up his scissors celebrating 50 years of career with a haute couture collection "recycled" in his latest fairy fashion show in Paris.

Her muses, the American pin-up Dita Von Teese or the Spanish actress Rossy de Palma responded present and played mini-shows at the prestigious Théâtre du Châtelet in "this great fashion show-show", the last for the 67-year-old fashion designer . He had announced last week to abandon fashion to discover other horizons.

Canadian model Coco Rocha did an Irish dance act, tops like Karlie Kloss, Bella and Gigi Hadid got into the game by taking attitudes for each outfit, an exercise in which we are not used to see during Fashion weeks.

Worn by two shirtless men, Amanda Lear paraded on the podium in tights and a shiny top. Actress Béatrice Dalle in a long black dress appeared to smoke and throw the cigarette butt on the podium.

The parade opened with a black coffin decorated by two conical cups made world famous by Madonna and from which came out the first mannequin, in white.

Couture was symbolically buried, but no regrets, but joy for this celebration where champagne was flowing and which ended with a dancing evening in the night.

"The best is ahead," says Jean Paul Gaultier in the note of intent for the parade without revealing his future project.

Even in normal times, the parades of the French couturier were out of the ordinary: transgressive and cheerful, they were accompanied by notes full of humor and puns to describe the outfits inspired by punks, burlesque or transgender, but always perfectly cut.

For the latter, he let go, presenting his iconic pieces such as corsets, diverted stripes, cut and reconstructed jeans or dresses made from old belts, all made from archival pieces.

"There are too many clothes, do not throw them away, recycle them," calls the designer. "Farewell to the brand new, hello to the brand new!"

- "Provocative" talent -

"Body positive" and "gender fluid" before the hour, he had men wear skirts and make-up and shaken up the elitist world of fashion with his subversive vision of beauty.

He created the revolution by being one of the first to parade senior models and overweight or tattooed women.

Since his first collections, Gaultier has mixed genres, sexes, eras, the banter of popular streets and the distinction of beautiful neighborhoods: chic rappers, sleek geishas, ​​corseted casseroles and men in skirts and high heels.

"I am modest in my fashion, he is rather provocative. It's his style, it's already a lot, Talent is personality, after the first ten lines we say it's Victor Hugo, that's Camus, Mozart ", remembered recently in an interview with AFP Pierre Cardin with whom Jean Paul Gaultier made his debut.

- "Loss" for sewing -

"Everybody is beautiful!" it was also the leitmotif of his autobiographical show "Fashion Freak show" at the Folies Bergère which was enormously successful in 2018 and which, according to fashion critics, would have comforted him in the idea of ​​seeing wider than the Fashion weeks.

"The show gave him prospects for the future," analyzes fashion historian Olivier Saillard, interviewed by AFP.

"It was very nice to see in the space of the theater this audience which laughed, which cried, which was in communion with him. It is more joyful than a fashion show which lasts 11 minutes, with people who are there with their phones, take photos, cheer very little, "he adds.

Jean Paul Gaultier sold his house to the Catalan group Puig in 2011 and stopped the ready-to-wear collections in 2015.

"I understand his choice. He did not want fashion to go so fast, he found that this environment has become a business, marketing, fast fashion (...) The cycles of fashion are neither livable nor for designers and customers alike, "says Julie de Libran, ex-designer of Sonia Rykiel who launched her own brand of dresses, and whose fashion show took place a few hours before that of Gaultier.

© 2020 AFP