Jean Paul Gaultier Spring 2014 at Haute Couture Week

By Haute Couture Week | 30 January 2016

Fashion’s enfant terrible Jean Paul Gaultier dimmed the lights and upped the ante for his Spring 2016 couture show in Paris Wednesday.

In homage to the 1980s cult Parisian nightclub the Palace, the collection was a blaringly loud celebration of all things festive and glam.

To this end the show was a riot of leather dungarees worn without tops, leopard-print kaftan dresses and trousers and blazers resembling bleached denim. Liberal use of metallics flashed to the surface via bronze bikini tops worn under silky bomber jackets and a pale gold blazer with padded shoulders and black piping, worn 1980s-style as a dress with fishnet tights. A sparkly mauve boiler suit was worn slashed to the waist and languid pyjama-style suits were littered with sequins for a debonair vibe.

There were slinkier cabaret outfits, too – notably a silk violet cape teamed with a chocolate-hued leotard, and a monochrome cream dress that rippled underneath a black tuxedo jacket that trailed to the floor. The accessories were no less theatrical, with leather gloves, pillbox hats, Egyptian headdresses and eye masks contributing to the debauchery.

In terms of hair and makeup things were very firmly in the 1980s, with masses of frizzy curls and New Romantic crops on show. Hoop earrings and lashings of red lipstick provided the final finishing touches for Haute Couture’s Big Night Out.

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