Although he has been quoted as saying that he has yet to look into the archives, Duran Lantink’s first collection for Jean Paul Gaultier owed much to the house’s nearly 50-year history. There were plenty of Breton stripes, conical bras, sailor hats and tattoo motifs. The name of the collection, Junior, also harked back to JPG’s late-80s diffusion line of the same name. The DNA was clearly there, even if the specific archive pulls weren’t. 

But for a debut collection, it made sense that Lantink wanted to introduce more of himself than Jean Paul Gaultier. Some of the most surprising pieces referenced Lantink’s namesake brand, such as the naked body suits and the lumpy bras, more than anything in the JPG vocabulary. And yet, in the provocation of these pieces, Monsieur Gaultier was present all along. 

As much as Jean Paul Gaultier is seen as an eccentric French uncle now, he was once considered one of the most shocking designers to ever hit the Paris schedule. He was the original enfant terribles. It is in this template that Duran Lantink goes forward. The sheer amount of skin in this collection, matched with the obvious eroticism of the outfits, feels just about right for the house. We are at a particularly cosy time in fashion. Duran Lantink wants to shock us out of our comfort zones.