The Last Jean Paul Gaultier’s Couture Show: How It Was

December, 17 designer Jean Paul Gaultier announced that his next Haute Couture fashion show in Paris will be the last in his career. Though, it wouldn't be the end, he teased: Gaultier noted he would be introducing "a new concept" for the line in the near future.

The designer turned his final fashion show, dedicated to a special anniversary, as he celebrates 50 years in the fashion industry, into a real party. And it was. An orchestra played with an enormous cast, capped off by Boy George belting the Culture Club's "Church of the Poison Mind". Maestro invited the most successful models and stars to walk the runway: Bella and Gigi Hadid, Coco Rocha, Karlie Kloss, Irina Shayk, Winnie Harlow, dancer Dita von Teese and singer Mylene Farmer.

Eva Herzigova, Laetitia Casta, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Nicolas Ghesquière, Christian Louboutin and many others came to support the designer. After the show, they thanked Jean Paul Gaultier for the years of his work, sincere friendship and the masterpieces that he has already created and will create. For the farewell appearance on the runway, the designer opted for blue uniform and then stayed to dance with the models.

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Throughout the show, Gaultier referenced past works. The iconic cone bra and corset the French designer famously created for Madonna’s Blonde Ambition Tour was reworked with buckles for muse Dita Von Teese, and even built into a black coffin guarded by black-suited models on stage.

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The combination of black fabric and gold metal inserts evoked associations with the costumes of the Amazons. Gaultier has spoken before, that when he was just starting his career, he often had to work with denim and camouflage, because the search for other materials was difficult. Gradually, these fabrics included in the DNA of his brand.

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vogue.com/fashion-shows

Most notably, the coffin was opened to revealed model Issa Lish, who walked down the runway wearing a frilled, puff-sleeved minidress.

"Couture is not dead!" Gaultier later said, perhaps to make clear that his departure from runways does not mark the end of high fashion.

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