[haircut, like, in-cred-i-bull. There was really
eccentricity, which I loved. In Paris, no. It was
like, “We judge you. You have to be chic.” But
what is chic? For me, what Paris was doing was
not chic at all. There was a rebellion I could
feel in London. I wanted to live here.’
Though his life and work were anchored in
Paris, the London tribes kept luring him back- the gay tribes in particular. ‘The Coleherne,’
he says blissfully, conjuring up the notorious
Earl’s Court leather bar once frequented by
the likes of Rupert Everett and Ian McKellen.
‘That was a shock.’ He grins. ‘Look it up.’ (It
is now, inevitably, a nice gastropub.)
‘In England, there is a kind of puritanism,’
he goes on, ‘but in reality...’ He makes a knowing
face. Really? ‘Yes, definitely,’ he says. ‘I went
there to London for that, you know. Definitely.
It was much better than in Paris.’ Truly? ‘Ah
oui, bien sur.’ That’s really why he went clubbing
at all in those days, he adds. ‘To be with some-
one, you know?’
But then Gaultier has always presented a
pretty relaxed attitude to sexuality. How else
does one explain the story that he proposed to
Madonna three times? ‘It’s true,’ he shrugs.
Was he serious?
‘In some ways, yes. I knew it was impossible.
Maybe it was because it was impossible that I
proposed to her. But I wanted to express the fact
of how much I was loving her and admiring
her.’ What did she say? ‘One time, she said
something like: “You know, it’s not so good in
reality to have a relationship.” All her men had
made her suffer, she said. So I said, “I will not
make you suffer.” And she said, “I know, but
maybe it’s you that will suffer.’’’
In the end, he had to attend Madonna’s
wedding to someone else – Guy Ritchie – in
- At the party, Ritchie lifted up his kilt to
Gaultier to confirm that true Scots wear nothing
underneath: ‘I understood why she loves him
so much.’ One divorce and two decades later,
Gaultier loves the fact that, at 62, Madonna is
still dancing in basques and pulling younger
men. ‘Why shouldn’t a woman be in love with
a young man, and a young man with an older
woman?’ He has always been frustrated by the
double standards about how men and women
can behave. ‘I wanted equality,’ he says. ‘Because
in some way, I suffer [double standards] myself.
It was like, “men cannot cry”. You know, they
are not allowed to be sensitive.’ He does think
things have definitely moved on, and become
more accepting, even if his men’s skirts never
truly took off. That’s a final taboo, he thinks.
But what does he feel about the concept of
‘toxic masculinity’, the notion that masculinity
is all about tough-guy behaviour or maintaining
an image of hardness? ‘La toxique masculinité?
Oh, that’s a pretty expression...’
‘It’s true. I proposedto Madonna threetimes. I wanted toexpress how muchI was loving her’Tatler August 2019 tatler.comadored the wet-look Thierry Mugler created
for ‘How you say? Kardashian.’ But ‘there were
things that were not exactly camp. For example,
the McDonald’s.’ What he’s referring to is the
giant burger outfit worn by Katy Perry. ‘She’s
good. But it was not camp, not at all.’
In the Nineties, Gaultier was offered the
helm at Givenchy, but turned it down because
he didn’t see himself as suitable for the house- he’d have rather had Dior. What does he
make of the now seemingly permanent merry-
go-round of designers at the top houses? He
sighs. ‘Now, people are speaking about the
musical chairs rather than the clothes. No one
is interested in the clothes. What is interesting
is who goes there, and there, and there. It’s a
question of power, not fashion.’
This may sound a bit good-old-days, but
Gaultier certainly doesn’t come across as a
dinosaur. His good humour keeps him from
that – he is, for instance, saddened by Brexit,
but mostly because he seems to be under the
impression that it means we won’t do Eurovision.
He is, though, despairing at the mess that
France, and the world, has got itself into.
He is also sad for his beleaguered president
Emmanuel Macron, whom he voted for. ‘It’s
terrible to kick him,’ he says crossly. He appre-
ciates some of the concerns of the gilets jaunes,
but struggles with the idea that life is as bad as
all that – or rather, any worse than it was when
he was a child and had very little at his disposal.
He had no television and no holidays growing
up, he says, but ‘I had a good life. I’m not say-
ing that they should not complain, but they
should not exaggerate.’
Of course, Gaultier does know a thing or
two about exaggeration – anyone who goes to
enjoy the zany world of Fashion Freak Show
will feel that. Just as anyone who first observed
him when he crashed onto the fashion scene.
Back then, no one seemed to take him seriously - except for his darling British. Not that he
took it lying down. He recalls gleefully how he
sent a letter of protest to the publisher of
Women’s Wear Daily, when one of his collections
was criticised as ‘sadomasochistic’ – a letter
in which he included a ‘very ’ardcore thing’,
he chuckles: ‘THAT is sadomasochistic,’’
wrote Gaultier triumphantly. The collection
was, he insists now, ‘just Gai Paris’ – just some
cute little sexy bras and suspenders made from
red leather and black lace.
‘It was a little frivolous, but it was not sado-
masochistic,’ he shrugs. ‘ – that time,’ he adds,
then pauses, and the eyes give a final twinkle.
‘But the collection after that – yes.’ Jean Paul
Gaultier really must miss the Coleherne. (
Fashion Freak Show is at the Queen Elizabeth
Hall, Southbank SE1, from 23 July-2 August.
southbankcentre.co.uk
But Gaultier isn’t all fun and games, and nor
is Fashion Freak Show. There is a lengthy homage
to Francis Menuge, the partner with whom
Gaultier shared his domestic and business life
for 15 years before he died of AIDS in 1990,
and to other victims of the AIDS
crisis. It was vital to feature Francis in the
show: ‘Maybe I wouldn’t be the Jean-Paul
Gaultier I am if he had not been there.’ He
had already got started in fashion, ‘but when
I met him, he gave me the force to do it alone,
instead of working in a big house. It was better
on my own, and with no money, Francis said.
The two of us, we could do it. My freedom, it
was because of him.’
Has he ever replaced Francis? ‘It can never
be exactly the same,’ he says. He does have a
new partner, he goes on, who shares his life
between Paris and a home in the South of
France, near Saint-Jean-de-Luz, but he’s tight-
lipped about further details. ‘It’s different, ab-
solutely. I wouldn’t compare. Love can be
strong, but it can be different. I don’t try to
find the same person in someone else.’
What would Francis think of Gaultier’swork now? For the first time he is lost for
words. ‘Pffff... I think... I think he would
think that I’m still the same,’ he decides.
Gaultier still creates couture, although he
closed his ready-to-wear a few years ago. And
he is very much appreciated right now: the
cult streetwear label Supreme has just released
a collaboration with him. Considering the
way he was always sending all shapes and sizes
and colours down his catwalks, and the way
he championed diversity back when ‘diversity’
wasn’t even a thing, this feels like justice. And
several of his creations are being showcased in
the Metropolitan Museum’s Camp: Notes on
Fashion exhibition. ‘Yeah,’ he says with a little
French pout. ‘But maybe not the clothes that
were camp.’
His own contribution to this year’s camp-
themed Met Ball was a huge-shouldered
jumpsuit worn by the actress Natasha Lyonne,
inspired by the pop singer Klaus Nomi. ‘I
loved Hamish Bowles’ outfit,’ adds Gaultier,
applauding the Vogue editor’s wild lilac cape
by Maison Margiela. ‘Fantastic!’ And he08-19WELLJeanPaulGaultier.indd 100 04/06/2019 22:19
100