Editor’s Note: As part of Vogue Runway’s ongoing efforts to document the history of fashion shows, we are closing 2025 by adding new digitized shows to the site. This fall 1998 couture collection was presented on July 17, 1998 in Paris.
Contemporary reports of Jean-Paul Gaultier’s fall 1998 couture offer two backstories. Reuters wrote that the models were styled after “femme fatales”. Then there is Yeosu’s angle. The New York Times noted that when Gaultier appeared for his bow he “told Pierre Bergé, the president of Saint Laurent, who was in the front row, that he had paid homage to Saint Laurent.” This was especially a reference to the ending. The show took a romantic close, with Tunnel Bedroscents and Teresa Lourenco appearing under a cloud of tulle wearing complementary Arran fisherman sweaters. He had a cross and a heart, and his study stood out Yes t’aime. They seem to nod to Yves Saint Laurent’s Matryoshka-inspired Cocoon Bride in 1965.
The collection indeed had the high elegance associated with YSL (whose successor, Gaultier was often called), but it was signature Gaultier through and through. As for ready-to-wear, the designer’s approach was difficult. Bombers, puffers, tracksuits… go for it, make it coatier, and add some sex appeal. Beaded bras were exposed, and the back of a gold-faced black column gown was engineered to look like it was open.
High, double-waisted pants created a long line, and plumed sleeves turned the models into hybrid birds of paradise. Speaking of feathers, they were used to create Icelandic-style sweaters, taking it from casual to something extraordinary. elsewhere, Vogue noted that a trench dress that paid homage to Greta Garbo required “19 fittings to fit perfectly”, and Toronto Globe and Mail “A patchwork jacket was fashioned from a turn-of-the-century pearl-studded purse,” reads. To what extent did Gaultier come from tin cans and tea strains?
