portrait by Walter Pfeiffer
Dear Shaded Viewers,
The appointment of Duran Lantink as the new creative director of Jean Paul Gaultier marks a pivotal moment for the storied Parisian house—a bold move that signals both a return to the brand’s rebellious roots and a leap into fashion’s sustainable future.
For the past five years, Jean Paul Gaultier has operated under a unique model: inviting a rotating cast of guest designers to reinterpret its codes for each couture season. This experiment brought fresh perspectives from the likes of Glenn Martens, Haider Ackermann, Olivier Rousteing, and Ludovic de Saint Sernin, but it also left the house without a singular creative vision. With Lantink’s appointment, the maison decisively ends this era, entrusting both its couture and ready-to-wear lines to a single, visionary hand.
Lantink, a Dutch designer celebrated for his radical upcycling and irreverent approach, is a natural heir to Gaultier’s legacy of provocation and playfulness. His career has been defined by a commitment to sustainability, inclusivity, and experimentation—values that resonate deeply in today’s fashion landscape. Lantink’s signature is the transformation of deadstock and unsold luxury garments into new, covetable pieces, often with exaggerated silhouettes and a sense of humor that echoes Gaultier’s own enfant terrible spirit.
His rise has been meteoric: from the viral “vulva pants” worn by Janelle Monáe in 2018 to winning the ANDAM Special Prize in 2023, the Karl Lagerfeld Prize at the LVMH Awards in 2024, and the International Woolmark Prize in 2025. Lantink’s work has graced celebrities like Beyoncé and Billie Eilish, and his pieces are now part of major museum collections.
Jean Paul Gaultier himself has welcomed Lantink as the “new enfant terrible of fashion,” recognizing in him the same energy, daring, and playful spirit that defined Gaultier’s own early career. Lantink, in turn, has called Gaultier a genius and a trailblazer who “kicked down doors so that people like us can walk through them and be who we are”.
This mutual admiration is more than symbolic. Lantink’s upcycling ethos and his ability to create excitement from the industry’s castoffs are perfectly aligned with Gaultier’s tradition of challenging norms and celebrating the unconventional. Both designers share a belief in fashion as a vehicle for cultural commentary and transformation.
Lantink’s first ready-to-wear collection for Jean Paul Gaultier will debut at Paris Fashion Week in September 2024, with his haute couture debut slated for January 2026. The industry will be watching closely to see how he fuses his collage-like, sustainable approach with the house’s iconic codes—corsetry, sailor stripes, gender fluidity, and more.
The end of the guest designer era and the arrival of Lantink suggest a new stability and creative coherence for the brand. It is also a statement: Jean Paul Gaultier is not content to rest on nostalgia. Instead, it is betting on a designer who is as radical and relevant today as Gaultier was in his own heyday.
Duran Lantink’s appointment is more than a changing of the guard. It is a declaration that Jean Paul Gaultier remains a laboratory for fashion’s most daring ideas—now with sustainability and inclusivity at its core. In Lantink, the house has found not just a creative director, but a kindred spirit ready to write the next chapter of fashion history.
Later,
Diane
