It marks a shift in strategy after five years of revolving guest designers
After Jean Paul Gaultier retired from the runway in 2020, his Puig-owned namesake house initiated a rotating designer model, in which a guest talent created each couture collection. Chitose Abe, Glenn Martens, Olivier Rousteing, Haider Ackermann, Julien Dossena, Simone Rocha, Nicolas Di Felice and Ludovic de Saint Sernin have each taken on the gig.
Now, the brand is changing strategy: it has tapped Duran Lantink as creative director to lead both couture and ready-to-wear, bringing an end to the rotating model.
“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,” Gaultier said in a statement.
“I consider Jean Paul Gaultier as a genius and part of a generation that kicked down doors, so people like us can walk through them freely and be who we are without apology,” Lantink said. “Stepping into the role of creative director is a true honour. To me, Gaultier represents the ultimate house of creative spirit and savoir faire. It’s provocative, and continuously pushing boundaries. It’s the brand that brings together different disciplines around fashion to create cultural movements, changing the language of clothes and how we wear them in the streets.”
It’s understood that with both ready-to-wear and couture collections under his purview, Lantink will put his own brand on pause.
The Dutch designer, who was born in 1988, founded his womenswear, menswear and genderless label in 2016, creating upcycled garments and accessories. He had his big break in 2018 when American singer Janelle Monáe wore his “vagina pants” in her music video for ‘Pynk’. He won the Andam Special Prize in 2023 and the LVMH Prize’s Karl Lagerfeld Award in 2024, which recognises creativity in young brands. His bold, exaggerated silhouettes – think linebacker padding on the shoulders and upper torso – stand out at a time when fashion is playing it safe.
His autumn/winter '25 show in March was among the most talked about of this season in Paris. The designer opened his show with a woman wearing a man’s chest plate and closed with a man wearing a woman’s breast plate. Earlier this month, he was presented with the Woolmark Prize by Donatella Versace and Ib Kamara. “I think now more than ever, it’s important to be a bit more radical. Because if we’re not being radical, then what are we doing?” he said during his acceptance speech.
Photo: Courtesy of Jean Paul Gaultier/ Walter Pfeiffer
Each new guest designer at Jean Paul Gaultier created buzz, increasing the desirability of the brand. (It is understood that fragrances account for the bulk of the house’s business; bestselling perfumes include Le Male and Scandal.) However, while the shifting designer model may chime with the contemporary fashion world’s need for novelty, creative refreshment and media talking points, it comes with challenges – like the need to retune the atelier for a single collection.
The maison’s move to appoint a permanent creative director could be taken as evidence that the current model (also embraced by AZ Factory and briefly Pucci) is running out of steam. The brand also needs creative leadership for its ready-to-wear, which has been limited to capsule collections since Gaultier stepped down, and having separate designers for couture and ready-to-wear would risk losing some degree of clarity.
Lantink’s first ready-to-wear collection for Jean Paul Gaultier will be for SS26 in September 2025. His debut couture collection will be unveiled in January 2026.
Originally published by Vogue Business.