There are few designers so iconoclastic that they hardly require an introduction. Jean Paul Gaultier is one of them, as instantly recognizable for his peroxide hair, Breton stripes, and Cheshire cat grin as he is for Madonna’s cone bra and his extensive repertoire of gender-bending, subculture-inspired collections over the last five decades. For most of his career, he was described as fashion’s enfant terrible, but today Gaultier is one of the industry’s éminences grises, retiring from his namesake couture house in 2020 and handing over the keys to a revolving door of guest designers from around the world.
Last year, though, Jean Paul Gaultier (the brand) appointed a permanent creative director: Duran Lantink, a puckish 30-something Dutch designer known for his provocative sculptural designs. He moved to Paris from Amsterdam, got to work in the ateliers, and avoided looking at the archives too forensically. By the time the lights dimmed on the finale of his debut Spring 2026 collection, Jean Paul Gaultier—the brand—had once again become the center of controversy. Critics and online commentators were divided, many enraged at the hairy naked bodysuits, male swimsuits, and alienlike padding jutting away from oiled-up nude bodies. Some went as far as accusing Lantink of rage-baiting.
Lantink’s Fall 2026 show for Jean Paul GaultierLAUNCHMETRICS SPOTLIGHT
Who would have thought that clothes still have the power to shock, delight, and spark conversation? Well, Jean Paul Gaultier did; it’s why he hired Lantink. As those who have studied Gaultier’s career know, there were few times when the rebellious designer wasn’t causing outrage, often for championing models who defied easy categorization—in age, body, and race—or when he showed men in skirts in 1984, which led people to describe his work as “androgynous” long before “gender-neutral” was in parlance. His ideas about beauty, elegance, and clothing were always ahead of the curve, beloved by club kids just as much as by couture doyennes.
On a sunny afternoon in Paris, a stone’s throw from the ex-ribbon factory, ex-boxing gym, ex-nightclub that serves as Gaultier headquarters in the Marais, the pair sat down for their monthly lunch and invited Harper’s Bazaar to join them.
Harper’s Bazaar: When did you first become aware of each other?
Duran Lantink: It was so exciting to see Gaultier pieces on my aunt and my mom; they had this feeling of freedom and nightlife. It’s always been sort of around me.
Jean Paul Gaultier: I think I first saw you on TV. I said, “Oh, that’s different from the other ones.” I felt it was that energy that was coming through your clothes, which was almost like when I was younger. But I remember that you did something with the stripes.
Lantink: Yes, even from the beginning!
Gaultier: Yes, but you did it in your own way. You completely changed the vision of that. So I thought, “Great, we have something in common and your own expressions that bring something.” I said to myself, “Oh, a new Gaultier.”
Harper’s Bazaar: Have you ever felt that with other designers?
Gaultier: Maybe I was not looking for it at that time, so I didn’t remark. When I stopped, I was looking for designers who were interesting in their own style and could make some interesting connections with my work. The first designer was Chitose Abe, who brought her own spirit. And you, Duran, it’s a little bit of myself. It was so clear it was you.
Lantink: That makes me shy! I really try to channel that energy, you know what I mean? I think freedom and experimentation are so Gaultier, so it’s very fun to be free in how far it can go.
Gaultier: I was lucky, because when I started, I didn’t even go to school. I sent my sketches to all the couturiers, and I received a reply from Pierre Cardin, who said he would take me. I had done nothing before. It showed me that you can have confidence when you feel something is good, and there doesn’t need to be anything else. I could see the clothes.
Jean Paul Gaultier and Duran Lantink at the Hôtel National des Arts et Métiers in Paris for their monthly lunch dateAva van Osdol
Harper’s Bazaar: It’s not always the case that someone who started a fashion house is there to see it handed to another designer. So many houses were started by someone who is no longer around.
Gaultier: There are not many fashion designers who get to decide who will succeed them. Often, a big company wants to come in and change everything. Maybe I am a little pretentious, but I think there are some houses where you do have to change everything, and I don’t think that’s the case here.
Lantink: Yeah, it’s how to play with it. I think for me it was very important to stay focused and grab the first thing that came to mind, which for me was Junior [Gaultier’s diffusion line that was produced from 1988 to 1994], because it had this wild energy. So I thought, “Oh, I’ll just go back to my first story where I started realizing what Jean Paul Gaultier was as a child,” and it was just fun, nightlife, playful, colors, all of those things. There are so many different universes that he tapped into. For the second show, I was like, “Ooh, now it needs to be more Madame Masculinity.” I love that I’m starting to understand the characters. It’s an endless fountain that you can twist and play with and make it relevant. Because now you need to keep it alive and exciting with new collections, since the old collections are still alive and exciting.
Harper’s Bazaar: People were scandalized by your first collection!
Gaultier: Which is good! It’s perfect.
Lantink: Yeah, I think so too. Normally, after two days, the discussion is done. But even two weeks later, people were still really angry, and they kept on being angry.
Gaultier: I think people sometimes only have the image of couture that I did, but that came very late, in ’97. Before that, I was all boom, boom, boom. I was very against the idea of what is “chic.”
Harper’s Bazaar: It’s interesting, isn’t it, that in 2026, you’d think that maybe the world would be more progressive, but maybe it isn’t?
Lantink: We had a conversation about that—that in the ’80s, it was freer in terms of expression, whereas now it has become more conservative again. That’s really dangerous territory.
Gaultier: But you know, the ’80s came just after the punk movement. There were a lot of things happening in London with Vivienne Westwood, and because it was after peace and love, it had to be fashion with more brutality.
Lantink: Sometimes I wonder if we would ever have a revolutionary thing like punk again, because that is a foundation of years and years of building. It starts with rebellion and music, then moves into art and fashion, and then it becomes something else. But then in 2026, you only have social media, so it’s like small little waves of people that are angry, but it doesn’t change anything.
Harper’s Bazaar: I always think of Gaultier as being this celebration of subcultures, queer culture, and people outside of mainstream society: the underdogs of the world. Jean Paul, you introduced a lot of these people to a mainstream audience.
Gaultier: I worked with old houses before, which were very old and traditional couture. I was shocked by the mentality of these houses. It was all about what is and isn’t chic.
Lantink: Boring!
Gaultier: It’s boring and not at all going with my generation. So I was the only one to say, “No, I think it’s terrible.” And when I did my collection, I wanted to do it not in the couture way.
Lantink: What you’ve done so beautifully—taking subcultures, mixing them up, and creating this whole different universe—now I’m like, “Okay, how do I play with that?” That’s something I’m trying to figure out. But I’m just doing it and seeing where it ends, because it becomes your own language anyway. It’s difficult, but it’s also fun!
Harper’s Bazaar: Duran, your first couture collection showed this summer. What do you think the purpose of couture is today?
Lantink: I think couture is really interesting. There’s always been a slightly couture approach to what I do. What was important to me for the first collection was, how can I combine technology with savoir faire? How can you have the handworks and the machines join together, and then what is the sweet spot? I don’t want it to become soulless, and a machine is kind of soulless, and then the hands have so much soul. So how do you combine those two?
Gaultier: Yeah, that’s good. Experimental!
Lantink: I loved your idea for your first couture show, that you wanted to make something that was very wearable. Which is definitely not mine!
Gaultier: No, but you know why? Because it was in ’97. At the time, the couture houses were trying to make it more like prêt-à-porter extreme and hiring the modern designers of the time. They were trying too hard to make it modern but not understanding the meaning of what they were doing. It was not new at all! It was sometimes like a caricature. So I went the other way and wanted to do something pure and simple. I found that more rebellious.
Lantink: Now it’s for red-carpet dressing, which sometimes I struggle with. The way you worked with Madonna is a relationship of like 40 years, so it makes complete sense, and that’s very powerful. But now, when you’re a designer, they’re trying to force you to dress a random celebrity, and what’s the connection? We’re not collaborating. I think it’s so important to find an artist that you really respect, and then you start dressing that person.
Gaultier: With Madonna, we had something in common. She was treating men more like objects. It was exactly my thing—like, what is masculinity? What is femininity? That was what a lot of my work was about. It was also real because she loved fashion and she was in the underground. And she had something to say.
Lantink: It was also really good that there were not that many stylists, so the celebrities would just dress themselves.
Harper’s Bazaar: I think Madonna is a very good example of when you look back at her career—and, arguably, the same with yours, there are parallels. There were so many elements of provocation, shock, artistry.
Lantink: It’s funny because I’ve never seen myself as provocative at all. I always want to do something that excites me, and you can’t really tell if it’s provocative or not, because for one person it might be provocative and for the other, not. It’s an emotion that you can’t really control over other people.
Gaultier: On the other hand, it is not good to be provocative only because you want to be provocative. You can’t fake it. It must come from some kind of feeling. In some ways, fashion is smaller now; there are less magazines, but the shows are bigger. Sometimes it’s more about money than ideas. It becomes about how much money is being spent rather than someone who has something to say.
Harper’s Bazaar: I’ve noticed a lot that with the two of you, people describe you as enfants terribles. Jean Paul, you’ve had that your whole career, and now you’re also having that, Duran.
Lantink: You dropped the name on me.
Gaultier: I was happy to be the bad boy of French fashion.
Harper’s Bazaar: I think people really associate you with nightlife and what was happening after dark.
Gaultier: Everybody thought I was going out every day. It was not true! I was working all the time! It was more about what I saw in the street. Sometimes I would see something and I wouldn’t remember it correctly—but that’s good! A mistaken interpretation can be inspiration.
Lantink: Sometimes you see something in the street or a person, or you’re like, “That’s amazing.” But then you have to remember it differently, and you’re already transforming it into something else.
Gaultier: We are lucky because we do something we love, and we wanted to do it, so we have to enjoy it.
Lantink: Sometimes when I’m walking to work, I smile and think, “I’m actually doing something I really like.” It feels good. Not always—there are many moments where I’m like, “Fuck this all!”—but those moments are great. They keep you going.
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