It hit like a slap. Halfway through the Spring- Summer 2026 womenswear season, Duran Lantink’s debut for Jean Paul Gaultier sent the system spinning. It was wild, it was provocative, it was punk. It demanded a reaction – online and IRL. Bare bums, sexy sailors, conical corsets, full-frontal nudity. Shock, humour, sex: it distilled everything Jean Paul Gaultier has cultivated over a legendary career, and you could feel it – the unmistakable sense that he was loving every second.

The enfant terrible of fashion. A pioneer of camp and couture. The mind behind one of the industry’s most forward-thinking houses. From his very first eponymous collection in 1976, Jean Paul Gaultier carved an iconoclastic reign, breaking rules long before anyone else thought to question them. He blurred the gender binary decades ahead of the norm, pioneered runway diversity, and poked at the bourgeois echelons of fashion’s elite. Five decades on, the proof of his impact is undeniable: people still love to wear Jean Paul Gaultier.

Behind the doors of the brand’s seven-storey Belle Époque headquarters on Rue Saint-Martin lies a labyrinth as unruly as the house itself. Marble spiral staircases, wrought iron balconies, neon signs, velvet chaise longues and mannequins dressed in the designer’s opulent gowns. The building has lived many lives – ribbon factory, boxing hall, nightclub, presidential campaign HQ – a fitting backdrop for a fashion house that has always refused definition. Its walls have witnessed fist fights, dancefloor romance, political debates and, most recently, the arrival of a new creative force. Just over a decade ago, Gaultier announced the closure of his ready-to-wear label, pivoting to focus solely on haute couture and officially retiring after his 50th anniversary show in January 2020. Following a series of guest designers came the handover: fashion’s new provocateur, Duran Lantink, was named as his successor.

Lantink made his runway debut for his eponymous label in 2023, quickly earning a reputation for maximalism, warped proportions and an unshakeable desire to do things differently. For SS26, that same energy marked his first vision for Jean Paul Gaultier. Staged in the basement of the Musée du Quai Branly–Jacques Chirac, the collection – titled Junior – took cues from Gaultier’s playful 1988–94 diffusion line of the same name. The DNA was steadfast – Breton stripes, conical bras, sailor hats, tattoo motifs – but distorted and amplified with new vitality. Naked-print bodysuits played on notions of eroticism, op art bikinis left little to the imagination, and garments hung on the body as if by magic. As the torch passes from one enfant terrible to another, the message is clear: the rebellion continues, louder and more unapologetic than ever.

Duran Lantink: Jean Paul, when did we first meet?
Jean Paul Gaultier: I saw your work on TV, in photos and in magazines. That’s how we met, through your work. It’s also why I chose you, because I liked what I was seeing and what you were doing. I saw some shows that you did and I found it very interesting, so I said, “It would be good to work with him – if he wants.” [laughs]

DL: Of course I wanted that! [both laugh] I always knew the brand, since I was a little baby. I was always very connected to the spirit of Jean Paul Gaultier and the genius of the designs. The first time that we met in person was at that restaurant, La Société.
JPG: Oui!

DL: I was really nervous because I’d never met you. I don’t even know what the conversation was about, I only know that I ate a soup. [both laugh] The rest of the conversation I don’t remember because I was so nervous. It was nice, and now we meet more often, so that’s also good.
JPG: The food is better. [laughs]

DL: The food here is so good. The food at Jean Paul is the best in Paris, I would say. Except for the champignon salad, the rest is really good. [laughs] But that’s because I don’t like champignon, otherwise it would be the best. When we first met, we talked more about music, videos and life. I really admired that, having those conversations and listening to the philosophy of Jean Paul and how you worked. That, for me, is a very important thing because that’s how you really start to understand a person, and the brand as a human being.
JPG: Exactly. It’s more personal. For me, also, the fact that I didn’t go to school for fashion. I made drawings and sent them to Pierre Cardin, and he asked me to work for him. So I didn’t know what to ask you, we had a normal conversation because everything was normal. After, it can be interesting, of course, to speak about how ideas come to you and that kind of thing, but sometimes we cannot even say. [laughs] Not because it’s a secret, but because it just comes like that. [clicks fingers]

DL: It just happens. Something makes you excited.
JPG: It’s an inspiration. It can be people, it can be a car, it can be a street.

DL: Sometimes it’s so hard when people ask you what the inspiration is, because you’re like, “Well, I don’t really know. It just happens.” It’s a moment, and you’re like, “Ah! That’s fun, that’s nice.”
JPG: I think the most important thing is to see a lot of things.

DL: And, to be curious.
JPG: Voilà! Curiosity doesn’t kill the cat, [it’s] something that we need.

DL: Also, for me, if you’re doing a drawing… I don’t necessarily draw; I do more collages, but if you make a mistake, then all of a sudden the mistake is the best thing. It’s important that you don’t try to be too focused, but that you’re open to mistakes and that can actually be beautiful.
JPG: For example, the idea to make the clothes by myself when I was not so technical.

DL: Me neither. [both laugh]
JPG: You become a slave to the technique, which is not good. It stops you.

DL: It really stops you. If you’re constantly focusing on what the little seam is doing… There are people who are really interested in that, so it’s good to pull everyone together.
JPG: Oui, oui. Exactly.

DL: I find it’s always important to have conversations before it’s ready, because sometimes you see something like a shoulder just dropped off and you’re like, “Ooh, I actually really like that!” Even though they want to make it perfect.
JPG: Accidental good! Sometimes… [both laugh]

“I always knew the brand, since I was a little baby. I was always very connected to the spirit of Jean Paul Gaultier.” – Duran Lantink

Ella Joyce: The brand is so rooted in this idea of the body. How does that focus influence the design process? And how does that appreciation of accidents allow you to adapt silhouettes more freely?

DL: For me, it’s always important to stay really open and free. I don’t want to be too focused on one thing. I like to have a blank sheet where you can just play around, and for me, the play part is when the best things come out. [Or] at least the things that I get most excited about. There’s always a body involved, because at the end of the day, you are putting it on the body. But for me, it’s interesting to find new proposals for what the body can be.
JPG: Definitely, I think that the body speaks. I never liked to make the fitting on a mannequin, because there is nobody inside!

DL: It’s so true.
JPG: So it’s abstract. It’s like a painting in some way. The reality is that when somebody’s inside and there is a problem – there is always a problem you can find. [both laugh] Which is good, because, like that, you can correct.

DL: And you see it moving.
JPG: Voilà! It gives you another idea, and it makes you evaluate.

DL: It becomes a personality, and then you understand it.
JPG: I think it’s the best inspiration, people alive, moving. Many times I have been inspired by people who have a way, their own way of moving – a movement, an attitude, a gesture.

DL: When you work with the person on the body, for me it’s always important that the person has some type of freedom. You feel that everything you do, they just make it look really good. Even if you put a cat on the shoulder, you’d think, “Wow!” [laughs] It’s hard to find those people.
JPG: Some couturiers use it in another way. Because apparently it is the gossip that Mademoiselle Chanel, when she was older, she was sometimes [mimics pricking someone with a pin] doing it on purpose, so the models would react.

DL: To make her awake?!
JPG: Yeah! [both laugh]

DL: I mean, a model has to have a lot of patience.
JPG: They should be inspired by that for Chanel, a lot of pins! An acupuncture dress! [both laugh]

EJ: The house of Gaultier has always focused on bringing together menswear and womenswear. How have you seen the notion of masculinity, femininity – and gender as a whole – evolve?

JPG: For me, it was one of the things I wanted to show very early. I think in my first [womenswear] collection, I had at least one guy. At that time, it was a moment of change that I was feeling, for the equality between men and women. There was the idea of unisex with the hippies, so it was starting to be more fluid, let’s say. It was interesting to be part of it and to show some women as strong. I wanted to also show that men could be more free, to make fashion for men, not to make clothes. It was a moment where it was very separate, so it was a good moment to make something.

EJ: Duran, how did you interpret those principles in your debut show? What’s it been like approaching the Gaultier brand both as a designer and as an admirer of the house?

DL: It’s very exciting because there’s so much energy. It’s so weird to talk about the Jean Paul Gaultier brand next to you [Jean Paul]. [all laugh] There are so many boundaries that Jean Paul broke, creating a freedom for my generation. I need to maintain that energy, that freedom, and translate that into what I feel is happening today. You always did something that was a reflection of the day you were designing it in, you were inspired by the people of the day – the people in the streets. So for me, that’s one of the most important codes. I think in general, we have similar interests. When I was studying and I was really young, I always used male models in female clothes and female models in male clothes, mixing gender and masculinity and femininity. It’s a very natural thing for me.

EJ: Duran, you first showed in Paris in 2023, and Jean Paul, you first showed in Paris in 1976. The way that we consume fashion during fashion week has changed significantly. How have you both seen it shift over time?

JPG: In my first show, I had almost no journalists, only the ones who were refused at other fashion shows [laughs]. At that point, I didn’t know anything about a lot of things, but my show was at the same time as Emmanuelle Khanh – I didn’t even know! [laughs] I don’t regret that, because sometimes to be non-conscious of things is better. It can give you wings.

DL: It’s true. I really like the story where the models are wearing bare feet because you didn’t have money for the shoes.
JPG: Oui! But I think, to be honest, I am lucky for that, because it gives me security to feel that I can do something with nothing. It gives you confidence in yourself.

DL: Was it your first show where she was wearing the skirt with the tulle and then she was wearing bare feet…
JPG: With a biker jacket? Yeah.

DL: I like the idea that twenty years later, people will probably say, “Oh, it was a conceptual idea that there were no shoes, and it’s because this was linked with that.” [both laugh]
JPG: After, the second one was with socks, because it was winter. [both laugh] The third one was when I found somebody who said,” Yes, I will give you some shoes.”

DL: For my first show in Paris, I think we had 45 looks or something, but we had 30 pairs of shoes. [laughs] The show was in another building than the dressing room, so they had to run outside. It was hell, but it worked.

EJ: I was at that show, and you would never have known. [all laugh]

DL: Really?! OK, good. [laughs] I think it’s good because it gives you the strength in yourself to find a solution.
JPG: You just need to go for it. It’s better than when it’s easy. When you go into a big house when you’re starting and you have everything, it’s as if you are too spoiled in some way. After you think, “Oh, I cannot do without this or that,” in reality, you can do without this and that. You can do something.

“That’s the vision, to celebrate the diversity of what you get inspired by and feel complete freedom.” – Duran Lantink

DL: The mindset becomes that of all of a sudden, you see more problems than solutions.
JPG: Definitely and for the creativity, it’s bad. It’s really bad. It doesn’t mean that now you have to make it with no fabric. [laughs] Sometimes, to be in a position that is not regular is good, because it makes you think.

EJ: It’s very punk to be able to overcome those problems and think, “I can do it anyway.” Notions of DIY and rebellion have always felt integral to the house of Gaultier. Why is the need for that punk spirit in fashion so important? How is it still present, and how do you see it continuing to evolve in the current landscape?

JPG: Exactly! I have definitely been influenced by punk. Punk in the streets of London, punk with The Rocky Horror Show, because the show was in London. I don’t know if you have seen the movie or the play, but now they will do the show again, they show a new poster of it and present what was supposed to be the first one. I said, “No, because I am the age where I discovered it on King’s Road!” [laughs] I saw it in a little theatre on King’s Road, the first poster was all black and red lips with make-up and blood coming down from the lips, and that was it. It said ‘Rocky Horror Show’, that was it. I was lucky because I saw it with Tim Curry.

DL: Wow.
JPG: I saw the real one, and I should say it was truly, truly, truly funny. I have a few little funny things that happened when I went into the place on King’s Road. It was very small, there were old ladies who were placing the people in the seats and one was walking with a lamp because it was very dark to make the atmosphere like that. At the end, when I sit, the lady puts the lamp up to her face and was like… [screams]

DL: No way! [both laugh]
JPG: That’s the British, so funny.

EJ: Jean Paul, at your talk at the V&A recently, I loved hearing your stories of London and how that inspired you when you were younger.

JPG: Ah, yes! It was a strong feeling I felt when I was going to London. I would have loved to live in London at that age, at twenty years old. But it was not possible, because I was already working in Paris. I loved it because there was really so much happening, so many things in music, in everything. It was truly the place to live.

DL: I like London a lot.
JPG: Oui, the British are so funny.

DL: They are. They have a very polite way to say, “Fuck you,” it’s so nice. [both laugh]
JPG: Exactly! In a decadent way.

DL: You’re like, “Are you being nice? Or…” [laughs]

EJ: Let’s talk about the idea of what a brand is in today’s industry, what is or isn’t important when looking at the bigger picture? Jean Paul, how have you seen it change?

DL: I’m very curious as to what you’re going to say, Jean Paul.
JPG: I was very lucky that I had my own brand, but I was not a businessman. So in some ways it was great, because I was only – which is a lot – but only doing the collection, because it was what I was dreaming of doing. When it becomes a big company, and you have to become a businessman, it’s difficult for me – impossible! It’s why I retired. [laughs] But I admire those people. I will tell you that during my experience, when I started work with Pierre Cardin, he was everything at the same time, honestly, everything. He was the one who decided the style; he made this Cardin style. But he was also the one for the business; he was doing everything, and after he became Ambassador of France, Academician, he was very special. He was Italian, he was not French.

DL: Really? Pierre Cardin sounds French.
JPG: Ah, but it was Pietro Cardin. [laughs] He worked very early in France. It was great to see somebody who was doing everything, everything, everything. But at the time, he was not so much taking care of the collection; he was no longer interested in that. He was more interested in being Ambassador of France, representing France in China, travelling and more of that kind of thing. But it was a good school, not for my business, but for his creativity. [laughs]

DL: And also to just understand that you definitely don’t want to do the business.
JPG: Yes, I was not interested in it. Actually, it would have definitely stopped if I had to take care of that.

DL: It’s very stressful.
JPG: I was lucky because I had a boyfriend who was not a businessman, but he had more of a business mind.

EJ: Outside of the industry, the house works with charitable organisations such as amfAR, We Are Family, The Centre and Le Refuge. Can you tell us about the importance of this work?

JPG: It was very important for me because of my generation, where there was AIDS. My boyfriend, the one I [mentioned], Francis Menuge, died of it. So I was completely concerned by it, and of course, I wanted to be helpful in some way.

DL: It is important to support communities that are dealing with that.
JPG: It was terrible, because at the beginning they were saying that people… I remember there was a programme on TV for the first time, they were showing it because of Mr [Pierre] Bergé, [co-founder of ] Saint Laurent, who was the boyfriend of Yves Saint Laurent. He became important at that time because he was involved in politics around helping with AIDS. It’s terrible. It was said that it was gays that were doing it, it was segregation, like, “Gays, see, you did a bad thing.”

DL: I think it’s also the taboo around it, and that might have been then, but it’s still now. It’s really problematic to see that in the day of today, we’re kind of pretending it’s not an issue anymore, but it definitely is. I’ve been working with Sisterhood, which are transgender sex workers in Cape Town; they’re all homeless, and they all have HIV, and they don’t have any money for medication. It’s still out there, and it seems like people are slightly forgetting it, but it’s very important to keep on fighting for visibility and for normalisation to show that we’re standing behind it and we are supporting people who are dealing with a disease like that. It is definitely something that we need to keep talking about today, not necessarily only when it was the 80s and the 90s – it’s still a very important topic.
JPG: Because, for the people at the time, they all thought that because they were gay, they were punished by god.

DL: It’s really crazy.
JPG: It’s good now that the mentality has been changed.

DL: But not worldwide. There’s still a lot to do. There are still a lot of countries and continents where it definitely is a really big taboo.

“I think that the body speaks. I never liked to make the fitting on a mannequin, because there is nobody inside!” – Jean Paul Gaultier

EJ: Are there any touchstone references or pieces of work, art, literature, or film that are inspiring to you now or are constant inspirations?

DL: There are so many things, and it’s always changing. I love Grayson Perry, the artist. I just love him as a persona. There are different things in life that I find inspiring. I used to be obsessed with Absolutely Fabulous. [all laugh] You were in it too! I don’t think we ever discussed that.
JPG: It was absolutely fabulous! [both laugh] It was funny to be part of it, a small part of course, with Kate Moss in the Tate.

DL: Of course!
JPG: It’s hard to be an actor! You can have some crazy directors who want you to experiment.

DL: Was it the same episode where they woke up in a pile of trash on a boat? It was really funny.
JPG: It was. It was quite realistic of the fashion world; it was excellent. One of the roles was inspired by someone who was my PR in London, Lynne Franks. She was a famous PR, and she was exactly like that, completely hysterical.

DL: Like Eddie?! Oh, so good.
JPG: She was exactly like that.

DL: I love it. The outfits are insane, they’re so good.
JPG: Absolutely. I think the director was a very close friend of her, she was a fabulous woman.

DL: I love it when Eddie is going to New York to find the door handle because she’s rebuilding her kitchen, and she found a photo of a door handle in a museum. It’s so funny. [laughs]
JPG: It’s the best [show] about fashion. It’s showing some parts that people don’t know.

DL: We’ve also talked about Mad Max. You told me about one Mad Max version that I’ve never seen.
JPG: The first one, maybe?

DL: I think it was the first one. And do you know what I found? Have you ever seen The Holy Mountain? It’s a really incredible movie from the 70s by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
JPG: Oui, which is absolutely surrealistic. Incredible.

DL: It’s so good. That’s one of my favourite movies. Apparently, he was supposed to do Dune, but then it got so surrealistic that they cancelled it, so it never came out. I love Peter Greenaway.
JPG: I worked with him [in The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover].

DL: How was that?
JPG: Difficult, no! [laughs] He has his world, it was very invigorating. The first image that comes to my mind is it was in London during winter and it was less than ten degrees. It was the scene when Helen Mirren was going into the refrigerator, and there were all the flies and insects. It was completely outside, so cold, and she was nude, and he made her do it, like ten times. She was freezing!

DL: What is incredible about his movies is that everything is built. The whole stage is built. I find it so sad when you watch a movie now and you know that it’s not real. The fact that he was able to build these enormous things.
JPG: It was incredible. People spoke about the fact that the colours were changing.

DL: And then your outfits were changing. So when Helen Mirren walks into a red room, her outfit is red, and then she goes into the toilet, and then all of a sudden, the outfit is white.
JPG: But it was not my idea. I did it, but it was one of the art directors.

DL: Yes, Ben Van Os!
JPG: Yes! It was him with that idea.

DL: Ben Van Os is from the same town that I was born, and he’s the ex-husband of one of my mom’s best friends. That’s how I started knowing Peter Greenaway. I bought a book because I was doing research on Ben Van Os.
JPG: He’s very talented.

DL: A very good art director.
JPG: The credit for changing colour came to me, but it’s his.

DL: It was great.

EJ: Looking to the future, what work do you feel is important to be making now?

DL: For me, it’s very much about celebration and finding freedom and fun in the world. That’s the most important thing – that’s the vision, to celebrate the diversity of what you get inspired by and feel complete freedom. It needs to be curious about the things that you see around you.
JPG: The work is not finished. There is a lot to do. [both laugh]

DL: Yes, it never finishes.
JPG: Always changing and morphing.

DL: It’s really true. Life is morphing, and that’s why you go where you think is the right direction. I don’t really believe in a ten-year plan or anything. I think you need to be a bit flexible in what life brings.
JPG: It depends on what’s happening in the world – in society, and in reality. It’s a reflection of what is happening today, and to be part of it by doing the right thing.

This feature was originally published in Heroine 24.

models SERKAN DENIZ at FORD MODELS PARIS, ANIEK PIETERSMA at PLATFORM AGENCY, SANDRA MURRAY at OUI MANAGEMENT;
hair OLIVIER SCHAWALDER at ART + COMMERCE;
make-up CELINE MARTIN at ART + COMMERCE;
grooming [for JEAN PAUL and DURAN] CÉLINE CHARPENTIER;
nails FANNY ANGE WONYU;
set design SATI LEONNE at BRYANT ARTISTS;
casting directors PIERGIORGIO DEL MORO and EVAGRIA SERGEEVA at DM CASTING;
photography assistants STAN REY- GRANGE, LOUIS LAC;
fashion assistant CARLA RUIZ;
hair assistant CLOÉ HOBI;
make-up assistant THOMAS KERGOT;
set- design assistant LOUISA AARRASS;
digital technician ENEA ARIENTI;
design assistant BRUNO BIAGI;
production REPRO AGENCY;
production assistants JULIA IBATULLINA, GILLIAN BOURGEOIS;
special thanks to the office of JEAN PAUL GAULTIER