Jean Paul Gaultier Spring/Summer 2025 Haute Couture

The present started with a scream—one which sliced via the dimly lit expanse of Jean Paul Gaultier’s legendary Paris headquarters. Because it echoed throughout the frow, a corseted mannequin emerged as a shipwrecked damsel in a quintessentially sultry Ludovic de Saint Sernin-designed look. Recognized for a deeply sensual and gloriously uninhibited method to womenswear, de Saint Sernin’s foray into Haute Couture noticed the designer discover an unlikely muse.

De Saint Sernin, the eighth visitor designer to helm Gaultier’s couture line since the designer’s retirement in 2020, navigated the waters with a reverence for historical past, whereas using his personal instincts for modern edge. Keen to inform tales via every look, this assortment—titled Naufrage (French for “shipwreck”)—embraced nostalgia with seduction, and contrasts of texture and cuts. Aboard his style vessel, an all-star forged of sirens—Candice Swanepoel, Paloma Elsesser, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Alex Consani and Amelia Gray, to call a number of—draped in rope-like pleated jersey voile, corseted robes undone by eyelets and laces, and even tulle slip clothes studded with 50,000 brass pearls.

De Saint Sernin held up Disney’s The Little Mermaid as inspiration, however the assortment’s roots stretched far past fantasy. The nods to Gaultier’s personal archives had been unmistakable: a reimagining of his well-known boat hat look from 1997, corsetry that hugs the physique like a second pores and skin then juts out on the hips, unconventional, sexed-up tailoring, and a basic penchant for nautical themes.

With each figures discovering widespread floor in subversive sensuality and glamour, concepts had been merged seamlessly. However there have been new concepts, too, in fact. Feathers given a waterlogged sheen, tartan print rendered in glittering crystals, and latex pressed with crocodile prints that confirmed up in coordinating units and clothes. This was Gaultier’s signature hedonism and eclectic magnificence, however filtered via de Saint Sernin’s grungier lens.

“For me, it was vital to create a group that’s set in a particular universe and tells a really distinctive and exquisite story that makes you’re feeling such as you’re travelling into a brand new expertise,” he stated of the gathering—and transport he did.