Gaultier2 Fall 2008: Bowler Hat Variations

PARIS, Jan 18, 2008 / FR / --- The first figure one remembers with a bowler hat is Charlie Chaplin. A code that he has unmistakably made his own, especially when paired with the famous cane that the silent movie star twirled like nobody else.

There was something of him in Jean-Paul Gaultier’s now famous ready-to-wear line meant for boys and girls alike. The bowler hats were topping literally each and every look in the collection, the clothes being like variations around the connotations associated with the bowler hat.

It was clear right from the second look, with the black folded umbrella which replaced replaced the famous cane many times in the show and which was worn here over the shoulders: the bad boy displaying it inevitably brought up memories of Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange”.

Gradually a typical Gaultier look emerged made of a mixture of popular garment culture, paired with an imitable touch of Parisian DNA, interpreting for instance a classic English suit or coat, craftedly cut in a Prince-of-Wales fabric in light brown, with the pants worn inside boots of matching coloured plain check.

Backstage, Jean-Paul Gaultier explained that Fred Chichin, the male half of the famous French rock duo Rita Mitsouko, who has died of cancer at the end of last year, was the main inspiration for the collection. Chichin certainly had a very personal way of interpreting dandyism, not far actually from Gaultier’s classic options. So, although Catherine Ringer, the female half of the duo was attending the runway show, her partner’s reference was not obvious from the start.

Classic pieces in the best tradition of tailoring were here cleverly rerouted towards a rock n’roll spirit of subversion.

Shades of beige to light brown did however clean up the usual daringly extraordinary mixture of colours in the house’s tradition, as if to underline and focus the designer’s essential values: proportions, garment architecture, refined finishings.

Exceptional coats were the standout on the collection, particularly one in astrakhan. Beautiful jacquard knitwear also made a statement, the sexy touch was added by laced-up boots with the lacing sometimes prolonging itself on the front of the legs leg in tight pants.

However, was it the tribute or the sorrow for the recent parting with the musician and friend? Was it the will to insist on cuts and finishings? Some extravaganza was missing, it was as if we had been shown a beautiful silent movie in black and white. Although the aesthetics were there, something was missing, a sparkle of colour, a sequence of thrill. Is it the beginning of a new phase in the work of Jean-Paul Gaultier?