Jean Paul Gaultier s shows are always a bit of a romp around a theme, as serious clothes hold together a string of Parisian one-liners. This season it was literally playtime on the runway—a glass structure supported by an army of dolls. To set the scene, Natalia Vodianova, fashion s favorite child-woman, toddled out wearing a smocked Norwegian sweater with a pair of infantile black frilly panties over woolly tights.
But be not afraid. Gaultier toyed with the baby-doll look, turning it into tiny puff-sleeved swing-back jackets and an aviator-style shearling, as well as romper suits (one, very scarily, in leather), but he didn t let the kid stuff distract from the great pieces that ground his work. A lot of those were furs, like the big knitted sweatshirt pulled over a cheerleader skirt and the striped jersey with a swathed neck and wide sleeves that followed from his couture collection.
He went a bit askew with some of the dippy Rick Owens-esque raw-edged leather and hefty handkerchief-point skirts, guaranteed to make any girl look a mile wide. But when he focused on reinventing the masculine/feminine tailoring and streetwear he s been playing with since the ’80s, the collection (in this revivalist moment) took off. His olive ski jacket, lashed tight with webbing straps and clips, is a fall classic. And that s no kidding.
