Search Results for: jean paul gaultier

A French prêt-a-porter and haute couture designer, Jean Paul Gaultier was born in  Arcueil on 24^th April 1952. He never formally got educated or trained as a designer; instead Gaultier sent his sketches to popular couture designers from an early age. In 1970, after being impressed by his drawings, Pierre Cardin hired Gaultier as an assistant. A year later, he took a break in order to work with Jacques Esterel before returning to administer Pierre Cardin fashion house for a year in Manila.

In 1976, he released his first collection and since then he has been recognized as the enfant terrible of the fashion industry in France. His designs have been developed using diverse approaches based on popular culture, street war or have reflected playfulness and bizarreness. Most people at the time found his creativity as decadent, but individuals like Melka Tréanton from Elle, Catherine Lardeur and Claude Brouet from Marie Claire were impressed and seduced by his designs and helped Gaultier launch his career.

By the end of 1980s, he suffered from personal losses. His business partner and lover Francis Menugue died of some causes related to AIDS. Although this was heart wrenching for Gaultier, he made himself busy with his business. In the 1990s, he created some extraordinary sculptured outfits for Madonna for her Confessions Tour and Blond Ambition Tour. Other musical artists for whom he has designed outfits, include Mylène Farmer, Marilyn Manson, Kylie Minogue, and Leslie Cheung

In addition to this, he designed wardrobes of many films, including The Fifth Element by Luc Bresson; Kika by Pedro Almodóvar; The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover by Peter Greenaway; and The City of Lost Children by Jean Pierre Jeunet.

His choice of models is shockingly eccentric for the fashion industry, since he uses old men, fat women, tattooed and pierced models in his shows. Because of this, he faced criticism and popularity simultaneously.

Apart from fashion designing, Jean Paul Gaultier associated himself with the music industry as well by releasing dance singles and a music album that included mixes by George Shilling, Norman Cook, Mark Saunders, Tim Atkins, David Dorrell, Latin Rascals and so on.

Moreover, he is known for sponsoring an exhibition entitled Brave heart: Men in Skirts, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a retrospective of works by Rudi Gernreich, Vivienne Westwood and Dries van Noten. Gaultier designed a collection of skirts for men in 1985. He also collaborated with Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2011 to organize a show called The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk.

In 2012, Gaultier was included in the jury panel at the Cannes Film Festival. This was the first time that a person belonging to the fashion industry was made a part of the jury. The same year he participated in Cali in the Expo-Show, flaunting his collection of fragrances and classic outfits. In the same year , he was appointed as the creative director of Diet Coke and his job involved tasks like pitching in creative ideas for the commercial campaigns of the company, as well as for the online projects and retail events. Following the footsteps of Roberto Cavalli, Gianfranco Ferre, Matthew Williamson and Karl Lagerfeld, he designed limited edition bottles as well.

Jean Paul Gaultier collaborated with Puig to create a perfume line. They created fragrances like Le Mâle, Classique, Fragile, Ma Dame, Kokorico and some more.

Fashion designer Roland Mouret was born in Lourdes, France on August 27, 1961. He studied at a fashion school in 1979 but quickly left the academy in search of life experience. He worked as a Creative Director in a Paris based gay fashion publication called Gai Pied Hebdo in the 1980s being an Act Up activist. When Mouret left fashion school lacked garment construction skills but he compensated the set back with his innate sense of sensuality which helped him create some irresistible pieces.

Much later, Mouret started working as a model and stylist at fashion publications like Glamour and Elle. He was approached by Jean Paul Gaultier to work on his upcoming menswear collection while he was at a bar. That was Mouret’s first experience in designing. He shifted to London in 1994 where he worked as a designer for a small label called People Corporation which gave him the courage to start his own label. He teamed up with Scottish businesswoman Sharai Meyers and her husband Andre who helped him financially to start designing his clothing line in 2000. After almost seven years, Mouret shifted to New York and his Scarlett Johansson and Dita Von Teese inspired galaxy dress from the spring 2006 collection finally hit the runway. The dress was lined with a stretchy fabric used in the 1950s called Powerflex which accentuated the hourglass figure. Roland Mouret became instantly successful after the galaxy dress debuted on the runway being called ‘the dress of the season’ by many and celebrities seen donning Mouret’s creation every now and then.

Roland partnership with the Meyers’s ended months after the debut of his spring collection and entered the fashion industry in a rather shocking way. After retiring from his label, Mouret went on a 2 year leave from the fashion industry and everyone had their suspicions on whether he would return to the fashion world or not but he did. He came up with his new label RM which was financed by Simon Fuller. To pique public interest before the launch of his own label, Mouret undertook small projects. He collaborated with Bergdorf Goodman to design a limited edition clothing line consisting of 36 personally signed dresses which was a huge success. Mouret’s second project was designing a limited edition clothing line for the Gap.

The first fashion show denoting the launch of his label RM took place in Paris on July 4, 2007. The fashion show featured 21 easy chic dresses with geometrical patterns. The collection was openly sold on the internet the very next day and within hours; his first collection was completely sold out marking the tremendous success of his label’s launch. Roland managed to buy back the rights to his name on September 9, 2010 and opened his first freestanding store in 2011 at Carlos Place in London right opposite to the Connaught. The new two storey shop sold menswear, women’s wear and atelier; including his design workshop. An announcement was made in April 2014 that Mouret would collaborate with Banana Republic for a 25 piece collection of skirts, tops, dresses and trousers in a muted color palette.

Becoming a designer in his 30s, Roland Mouret may have been a late bloomer but he has certainly managed to win the hearts of many celebs like Victoria Beckham, Nicole Kidman and Sienna Miller with his irresistible lady-like designs.

The human figures walk during the fashion shows with their face hidden most of the time in bizarre yet contemporary outfits by a fashion designer from Belgium – Martin Margiela, who was born in 1957 in Genk. In 1979, he attained his graduation degree from Royal Academy of Fine Arts.

After graduating, he began working as a freelance designer and did so for more than four years. From 1985 until 1987, Martin worked for the designer Jean Paul Gaultier, before producing his own collection under his eponymous label in 1989. Later on, he worked as the creative director of the women’s line at Hermès between the years 1997 and 2003.

During the course of his career, Martin maintained a subdued personal profile. The designer usually stays behind the lights, as in backstage, hence he had hardly ever gotten his pictures taken. Whenever anyone has caught him on the camera, he mostly hides his face with his hands. Then how is the media contacted? All this is done through fax. When asked in an interview if the designer would want to be famous or infamous, Martin replied that he would rather be anonymous.

His trademark is as much of a mystery as himself, it contains his name and the numbers from zero to twenty-three. The badge of his label in attached to the inside and to the outside of unlined wear. For the company’s twentieth anniversary, the tag was switched to a archetypal logotype.

In 2002, his brand was overtaken by Diesel. The gossip spreading birdies or insiders of the industry were quoted as giving out the information that Martin may want to leave because of differences between the creative minds. The other reason for this was his sheer desire to step away from the adamant glare of the world of fashion.

It was in 2008 that the first peek of Martin’s face got published in print, New York Times. In addition to this, the story broke the news that Raf Simons was offered to take in hands the rein of the company. However, it was also written that Simons rejected the offer. Moreover, Haider Ackermann was approached to work as the creative director of Martin Margiela, but the position was turned down.

In 2009, Renzo Rosso who is the key stakeholder of the Margiela label stated publically that although the designer who founded the company is no longer working with it, the label under his name is working with the efforts of a new design team. Rosso emphasized that the focus for the 2015 is a youthful and energetic future for the company.

In another interview Martin Margiela described his view on color and some elements related to designing. According to him color is a temperature, an intensity, a clash and also a harmony. He feels that skin is a protective shield, fabric is a medium, texture is the result of time, construction is a means to a certain end, craftsmanship is a fruit of time, clothing is the concluding layer and fashion is a progression of propositions. Towards the end of the interview, the designer said that other than clothing he would like to develop an ‘understanding’.

Riccardo Tisci is an Italian designer from Taranto, who was born in 1974. He graduated from Central Saint Martin’s Academy in 1999, London, after studying in Italy. The city of his birthplace is tied to mythological stories of marines and mermaids, that acted as an inspiration in designs he created for Givenchy haute couture and ready-to-wear. After graduation, Tisci worked for a series of companies such as Coccapani and Puma prior to signing a three year agreement with Ruffo Research, which initiated the careers of many fashion designers including Sophia Kokosalaki. In 2004, when the contract expired, he started working on his personal collection, that he exhibited in 2005 and 2006 Fall Milan Fashion Week.

Before long, he was appointed as the creative director at Givenchy in 2005. This was an offer he had almost turned down since his original idea was to focus on his own fashion collection. However, when the designer found out about his mother selling the house for a personal problem related to his sisters and their new family life, he accepted the company’s offer and was content with his salary. Marco Gobbetti of Givenchy described Tisci as a perfect fit for the label because the designer has an elegance that is highly contemporary, modern and romantic simultaneously. Unlike the many designers who have succeeded Hubert de Givenchy, Tisci has received immense success, both financially and critically, specially in the sphere of haute couture. His catwalk presentations are very stylized with regards to space and architecture. The designer explained that his way of displaying the work is extremely melancholic and Tisci loves sensuality and romanticism.

Tisci, while working for Givenchy, created costumes for Madonna in 2008 to wear on the Sticky and Sweet Tour, following Dolce & Gabbana and Jean Paul Gaultier. In 2009, he designed another outfit for the introductory song, Candy Shop. In addition to this, he also designed exclusive clothes for Madonna – when she is not performing on stage.

For Givenchy’s Fall collection in 2010 he launched a new Brazilian transsexual model, Lea T. He worked with this models for years and Lea was also his personal assistant. In 2011, Tisci was considered to become John Galliano‘s successor at Christian Dior as the head designer, however a year later Raf Simons was announced as the Dior’s creative director after Galliano.

His other projects include an invitation in 2008 to curate A-Anna magazine, issue eight. In 2011, he was the guest editor of Visionaire‘s issue on religion. Moreover, other than working with Madonna, Riccardo Tisci has collaborated with Kanye West and Jay Z to make the covers for H.A.M and Watch The Throne. He again worked with West for his label GOOD Music on the Cruel Summer album.

Mariacarla Boscono, Italian model, appears frequently in his fashion shows and advertisement campaigns not only because of her talents but also because she is Tisci’s friend since his days at Givenchy.

Tisci desires to open a foundation for young people, to help them pursue their dreams and do what they are passionate about. This charitable thought came to his mind because of a young Iranian boy, who he encountered, who attends a boarding school in Dubai and is highly interested in fashion. However, his parents want the boy to study the subject of law.

Many fashion lovers, critics, and people feel that Riccardo Tisci’s fashion designing sense is gothic and dark.

Alberta Ferretti, born in 1950 was known as the ‘uncrowned queen’ of the Italian fashion industry before she became a world famous fashion designer. It all started off when she opened her own boutique, Jolly at a tender age of eighteen in 1968 alongside her competitors who are today’s fashion moguls like Gianni Versace and Giorgio Armani. With the art of dressmaking running in her genes, Ferretti soon became a force to be reckoned with. Her exquisite goddess gowns made with delicate chiffon fabrics and intricate designs soon brought her talent into the limelight when her work was spotted by an agent who motivated her to start her own line of outfits.

1974 was Ferretti’s time to shine when her first signature line was launched under her own name, Alberta Ferretti which was praised to the skies. Alberta Ferretti soon became a renowned fashion designer and it wasn’t long before she became the owner of her own company in 1980 called Aeffe in partnership with her brother Massimo Ferretti. Today Aeffe has made its mark in the industry, producing and distributing designs for famous fashion houses like Moschino, Pollini and Jean Paul Gaultier. The year 1981 was when she made her debut on the Milan fashion runway and launched her second line called Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti after three years. It was 1985; her daytime and evening apparel had become popular among youngsters due to its comfortable, fit and chic look.

In 1989, Ferretti was named the first female founding member of an Italian bank named Cassa di Risparmio di Rimini which was yet another feather in her cap. But that’s not all. She was also named the best female entrepreneur in Emilia Romagna. In the fall of 1996, Alberta decided to expand her business and opened up a showroom in New York. However, the year 1998 came with a lot of surprises. She received an award, Cavalieri Del Lavoro by the Italian President; an honor only reserved for those who have maintained considerable socioeconomic influence in the country. Around spring in the same year, she opened up another store at Soho, New York. It was September when Ferretti’s outfit donned by Gretchen Mol made it to Vanity Fair’s cover and a book was published by Samuel Mazza the following month unveiling details about Alberta’s work throughout the years.

In the spring of `99, Alberta broadened her horizons by targeting the middle class masses with her relatively low priced fashion line called Alberta Ferretti Tech which turned out to be a favorable move for her. Years later in 2007, Ferretti experimented with children’s clothing and launched her line of outfits for little girls at Pitti Bimbo. The following year, her decades worth of experience landed her a spot on the famous television show Project Runway as a judge and she opened a shop at Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles. In 2009, the designer launched her own fragrance endorsed by supermodel Claudia Schiffer.

Quite recently in 2010, Ferretti came up with her bridal collection called Alberta Ferretti Forever which has been quite a success. Ferretti’s sense of choosing feminine, unique and delicate material, skillful draping and use of jewels and embellishments is what makes her truly one of a kind. From time to time, Ferretti’s outfits have been donned on the red carpets of international awards ceremonies by actresses like Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock, Scarlett Johansson, Uma Thurman, Emma Watson and Diane Kruger.