Still a man of excesses who refuses to conform, Jean-Paul Gaultier, since 1976, has been enthusiastically leading the fashion world from surprise to surprise. Insolent in his talent, dogged in his work, unceasingly creative, his roots belong to Paris of the 1950's

A great era of love and life, of love of life too, punctuated with fragments of songs and crisscrossed with cinematographic images - romantic escapades on the stairs of the Butte, stagelights shining down on Lola Montès played by Martine Carol, mythical legs topped by Zizi Jeanmaire's feathers at the Folies Bergère, and most of all, a wonderfully innocent period characterized by Tati's childlike uncle! As the resonant voice of Arletty declaiming against her atmospheric face faded away, while the first breath of unabashed freedom came from the United States, a child - Jean-Paul Gaultier - was drawing girls in fishnet stockings in the margins of his school notebooks, picking up tin cans in the garbage to transform them into bracelets, and spent most of this time at his grandmother's with its wonderful floral scents. It was a magical place, where you could say and do anything, Ali Baba's cave where everything was possible, a healing place, a stage to wear makeup, tell the future, all types of initiations, Jean-Paul Gaultier learned from it all. Notably hairdressing and dying of which his teddy bear was the first guinea pig

This period marked Jean-Paul Gaultier's passion for fashion, a passion which led him, at 18, to Pierre Cardin, then to Jacques Estérel in 1971, finally to Patou where he assisted Michel Goma and later Angelo Tarlazzi. Having returned to Pierre Cardin, he left France for Manila, determined to grab hold of life, footloose and fancy-free? A few months later, he came back to Paris, and met up with childhood friends, Francis and Donald, the Mutt and Jeff team that makes up today's enfants du paradis. With them, in 1976, he set sail for the adventure of creating the Jean-Paul Gaultier fashion house: first images of short tutus worn under sweaters, jewelry made of tin cans, kilt minis slit up each side, Jean-Paul Gaultier struck out at convention well decided to conquer Paris, and, in 1978, he presented his first collection with his first licensee, the Japanese firm Kashiyama.

Like any story, Jean-Paul Gaultier's work breaks down into different eras of which there now are four, and could be defined as: Paris - the past's influences on today, mixing tastes, , travels, , a return to the garment or a conception of the trade..