Jean Paul Gaultier - Fall 2011 Couture

Vogue
By Hamish Bowles

The hypnotic instructions of a ballet mistress and a ballet master to their classes, and the demand of the demonic choreographer in Black Swan to his hapless ballerina to embody the qualities of both the Black Swan and the White Swan, at the opening of Jean Paul Gaultier’s show, signaled the designer’s intention to explore a dark side of the fairy-tale world of tutus and feathered headdresses.

The jacket of his opening number—cut like a trench over a suave pantsuit—was given an explosion of tutu ruffles to create a bustled peplum, and romantic ballet-length skirts in sturdy tweeds had the unexpected embellishment of feathers at the hem that evoked the headdresses of ballet’s traditional swans. Gaultier used feathers with great imagination throughout the collections—tufts of multicolored marabou simulating camouflage prints or an Icelandic sweater; a feathered cockerel embellishing the sleeve of a black evening coat; and the bands of iridescent pheasant plumes streaking a full tulle skirt—with a bodice elaborately embroidered to simulate those feathers. Sadly, many of these refined effects are lost in the designer’s madcap and fast-paced show that made one long for a leisurely salon presentation.

And Gaultier continued to ring the changes on the iconic pieces that he loves. Trench coats were reenvisioned in liquid jersey, draped like the magnificent Madame Grès dresses currently on display at the Musée Bourdelle, and his biker jackets were transformed into masterpieces of elegantly tailored sobriety.

The smoky-eyed ghosts of Nijinsky and Nureyev also haunted the runway as Gaultier showed men’s couture for the fearless few—a Grès-draped white jersey cummerbund that cinched a tuxedo pant, for instance, or the sweeping capes that are emerging as a strong statement this couture season.

For a finale piece, Gaultier sent the flame-haired French pop icon Mylene Farmer, wearing a biker jacket with an exuberantly feathered and bustled net skirt that evoked the fantasy costumes that Gaultier’s idol Yves Saint Laurent created for the gamine French dancer Zizi Jeanmaire in the early sixties, out to the strains of Jeanmaire’s hit song “Mon Truc en Plumes.”