INVEST IN VINTAGE JPG: CELEBRATE 50 YEARS OF JEAN PAUL GAULTIER COUTURE

IN CELEBRATION OF JEAN PAUL GAULTIER’S 50TH AND FINAL COUTURE SHOW IN PARIS LAST WEEK, WE SELECTED SOME JPG VINTAGE PIECES FOR YOU BEFORE THEY BECOME SACRED COLLECTORS ITEMS.

images via google

Last week, in a video posted on social media, French designer Jean Paul Gaultier announced, “Now I’m going to share something with you. This will be my last haute couture show. My last Gaultier Paris show. Be there! You can’t miss this.”

Only days later, the designer put on a finale to remember. The runway was dotted with 90s supermodels and celebrities (Yasmin Le Bon, Dita Von Teese, Boy George), the front row with fellow designers and the who’s who of the fashion elite (Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and the designers Nicolas Ghesquière (once a junior assistant to Mr. Gaultier), Christian Lacroix and Dries Van Noten), and JPG put on a show.

“I was recycling things, because at the beginning I had no money. So I was taking things like jeans and camouflage and doing funny things with them—and now I did that with my couture!”

— jpg

Gaultier has made a name for himself as a master of spectacle. The bordello, cabaret, and corsetry (remember that conical bra?), feathers and leather, and gender fluid creations became JPG signatures, and he didn’t forget to weave elements of all into his farewell show.

The flamboyant designer honed his skills under Pierre Cardin and Jean Patou before taken the reigns at Hermes (2003-2010). Since then he has been creating beautiful walking sculptures that toe the line between avant-garde art pieces and sophisticated ready to wear.

While this runway show may be his last spectacular presentation of genius, we imagine we will continue to see more doses of JPG creativity still to come. In the meantime, we’re taking the time to browse some of the best JPG pieces avaliable right now, hoping to snap up some of the designer’s elusive wonders before it is too late.