There will be one less collection showing at Paris Fashion Week after this season. Jean Paul Gaultier has announced that the ready-to-wear range he will be showing in a few weeks will be his last. The designer is doing away with RTW to focus his attentions on other projects, though mainly his couture and fragrance options.
While it is always sad when a designer downsizes, in this case the move makes sense. “We looked at various possibilities considering the present state of the company and we have reached the same conclusion,” he wrote in a letter to WWD. “For some time, I have found true fulfillment in working on the haute couture and it allows me to express my creativity and my taste for research and experimentation.”
Perhaps the move is an indication that Gaultier wasn’t doing so well in the ready-to wear market. Sure, his designs are truly creative and reflective of his great mind, but we’re thinking that his aesthetic wasn’t resonating with customers. Besides, his wacky proclivities seem to be better suited to a couture market.
Fragrance is expected to make up the majority of Gaultier’s business once he nixes ready-to-wear (about 80 percent), sources say.
“After more than 38 years spent producing men’s and women’s ready-to-wear collections, it seems to us that the time has come to stop some of our activities and to concentrate principally on the development of the haute couture, of perfumes and to certain collaborations that I have not yet had time to explore,” he said. “This is a new beginning, I will be able to express again my creativity fully and without constraints.”
[WWD]
