Paris (AFP)

“Now I like fashion as a spectator,” says Jean Paul Gaultier, behind the scenes of his brand's first haute couture show with guest stylist, Chitose Abe, his feminine “enfant terrible” alter ego.

The couturier hung up his scissors in January 2020 by celebrating the end of his 50-year career with a grandiose parade at the Théâtre du Châtelet, without leaving fashion.

At the end of May, the brand returned to ready-to-wear with collections in collaboration with young designers, the first of which reinterpreted its iconic sailor top.

He did not appear to greet the public alongside Japanese designer Chitose Abe, but received his admirers backstage after the show, as part of Haute Couture Week, held a year late due to the health crisis.

- Japanese volumes -

The bomber, the kilt, the transformation of jeans: the two designers have a common clothing vocabulary.

After shopping in a Sacai brand store in Tokyo, Jean Paul Gaultier decided that Chitose Abe would be the first to take over, before other designers took over each season.

"I wanted it to be a woman after me. She brought her Japanese culture which is felt in the volumes. It's great, it's a very beautiful voice," Jean Paul Gaultier told AFP, saying to himself "delighted" with the result.

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From the first look, called "I Gaultier under my skin", she played the mix of genres pioneered by the designer: a tennis-stripe hybrid corset dress reminiscent of a man's suit.

The trench coat transforms into an architectural strapless dress, "upcycled" jeans (from transformed materials) serve as the basis for voluminous dresses.

Known for unexpectedly juxtaposing volumes and materials, the designer celebrated the signature Jean Paul Gaultier look in a "3 in 1" outfit incorporating a sailor dress, tartan skirt and overalls.

Dressed in a black T-shirt on which it is written in white "enfants terribles", Chitose Abe tells behind the scenes, in Japanese, via a translator, that Jean Paul Gaultier had given her carte blanche.

“Design is about freedom,” he told her.

"I didn't give her any instructions at all, at all, at all! She worked from the archives," he says.

A torch of experimental fashion, the Sacai brand, which parades during the Parisian ready-to-wear weeks, was created in 1999 by Chitose Abe.

The one who made her debut with Rei Kawakubo and Junya Watanabe for Comme des Garçons, is known for having reinvented knitwear and for her hybrid urban style.

The year is rich in collaborations for the stylist, who was also approached by her friend Kim Jones, in men's fashion at Dior.

Sacai and Dior have created a capsule collection of ready-to-wear and accessories that will be in store in November.

- An exhibition at the Cinémathèque -

For Jean Paul Gaultier, the Sacai signature gives "a new lease of life that inflates the tutu" of haute couture.

Does it serve to "rejuvenate" the brand?

The 69-year-old couturier does not like the word: "I have never done old fashioned, old lady!".

But he feels "respected": a "weird word, especially coming from my mouth", he smiles.

As for his own projects, he prefers to see more than fashion collections.

He will be the curator of the “CinéMode by Jean Paul Gaultier” exhibition which will open in October at the Cinémathèque française, where he will “parade” costumes from films that have marked fashion.

A great cinephile and costume designer for films by Pedro Almodovar, or for "The Fifth Element" by Luc Besson, the couturier will tell "a history of cinema", from Marlene Dietrich to James Bond, including Superman.

© 2021 AFP