After five years without a figurehead to lead the namesake label, a new L’enfant Terrible is upon us, and it’s none other than Duran Lantink.
Known for his daring approach to fashion, Jean Paul Gaultier was one of the first designers to break through the gender boundaries that manifested within fashion. The Parisian visionary chewed up the fashion rulebook, and spat it out onto the runway, in iterations of ‘Bombshell Breasts’, intricately constructed corsets, and androgynous tailoring. Since hanging up his creative directorship five years ago, Gaultier has since passed on the torch to a different guest designer each year, as they mesh the Gaultier DNA with their own aesthetic for Paris Couture week. Best coined as a who’s who in the fashion-of-now, we’ve seen Simone Rocha, Glenn Martens, Haider Ackermann, Olivier Rousteing, Julien Dossena, Chitose Abe, Nicolas Di Felice, and most recently, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, all have their stabs at reinvigorating Gaultier’s couturier vision.
Now, it’s time for a new vision to take the helm of the Puig-owned atelier, which spans over four decades, and the man for the job has been announced as Dutch designer, Duran Lantink. Perhaps best known as this decade’s ‘golden boy’ of fashion, Lantink has undoubtedly been one of the most talked about names-to-know over recent years, cultivating a brand that similarly stands for a gender-bending outlook on fashion and wider culture. First gaining a name for himself a decade ago in Amsterdam, Lantink patched together old scraps of designer clothing, making for a radical commentary on the state of fashion.
Since then, his ascent into the fashion world has been nothing short of exponential, Lantink caught the eyes of the British Fashion Council after his ‘vagina trousers’, sported on Janelle Monaé in 2018, which gained him a residency at London’s Somerset House; he then snatched a nomination as a semi-finalist of the esteemed LVMH prize 2019. “I see in him the energy, audacity, and playful spirit through fashion that I had at the beginning of my own journey: the new enfant terrible of fashion. Welcome, Duran”, says Jean-Paul Gaultier.
Words – Freya Goodchild-Bridge
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