"I am fascinated by mix and match, real or fake, diversions, everything that goes into making you unsure about what is reality. I like it when there are several ways of seeing something, when the interpretations are such that nothing is a sure thing, everything is relative. The mystery remains, reality shrouded in poetry, but nevertheless there."


Influenced by a Paris where all meet and everything blends, the proletariat and the aristocrat, the distinguished and the run-of-the-mill, the beautiful and the ugly, Jean-Paul Gaultier goes on his way blending tastes, eras, genders.


His first collection for men consecrated "The Male Object" (S/S 84) who, far from being macho, dared to seduce. A door was opened, the equality of sexes bringing about common clothing with a low-cut back as it's emblem. Androgyny was another step on the road to co-habitation, and he launched the wardrobe for two (S/S 85) before both sexes could find each other in the men's skirt or in the superposition of skirts and trousers.


He continued mixing tastes with a walk along Barbes' cobblestones, a cosmopolitan area if ever there was one in Paris' Montmartre. African tunics kept warm under short jackets or frock coats, and convention flew out the window.


Finally, the jacket was progressively transformed, one of the most striking versions having lost its collar, worn off-the-shoulders and gathered by a small shawl (La concierge est dans l'escalier, S/S 88). Then the lines got closer to the body, this was the reign of stretch knits, the shapely short jacket over tapered trousers for a more masculine touch (French Gigolo, F/W 86-87), and women topped their crazy petticoats with a short jacket (Les Poupées, S/S 86).


Variations on a color theme, sequins sported in the daytime, classical shapes constantly reworked, Jean-Paul Gaultier explores his fashion vocabulary like Captain Nemo the depths of the sea!