7 Jean Paul Gaultier Runway Moments That Defined the House
A look back at the corsets, stripes and prints that got the eponymous label here—and where it goes next.
Like so many of today’s biggest names, Jean Paul Gaultier never went to fashion school. Instead, he started sending sketches to Parisian houses as a teenager, landing an assistant role under Pierre Cardin at 18. By 1976, he had a label of his own. What followed was four decades of runway shows built to provoke, shows that turned technique and print into the house’s defining language.
Never losing sight of where culture is at any given moment, Gaultier linked up with Supreme in 2019 on a collection that pulled from the label’s late-’80s Junior Gaultier sportswear archive. Fronted by Lourdes Leon and artist Chito, the collaboration introduced the designer’s world of stripes, corsetry and experimental imagery to a generation raised on drops rather than runway calendars.
That momentum hasn't slowed down. In 2025, the house named Dutch designer Duran Lantink its first permanent artistic director since Gaultier's own retirement in 2020, ending five years of rotating guest collections and putting a single creative vision back in charge.
As the label looks toward what’s next, we take a look back at the runway moments and designs that got the house to where it is today.