He could have played the respect card, thoughtfully referencing the sailor top and the bustier corset, and reassuring a house in the midst of a generational transition. Duran Lantink, however, chose to 3D-print the Gaultier legacy, to distort it, to transform it. For his haute couture debut, the designer\u2019s designated successor isn\u2019t preserving the archive\u2014he\u2019s bringing it to life.<\/p>\n\n
When a designer takes over a fashion house that still bears the name of its living founder, two temptations lie in wait. The first is affectionate pastiche\u2014that cautious imitation that reassures customers and shareholders but turns the brand into a static museum. The second is a clean slate\u2014a dramatic break that creates a buzz for a season before severing the house from its own roots. Duran Lantink, appointed permanent creative director of Jean Paul Gaultier in the fall of 2025, presented his first haute couture collection during Paris Haute Couture Week in the summer of 2026. He chose neither path. He invented a third, more uncomfortable, more interesting path: one that treats the archive not as a collection to be preserved behind glass, but as raw material to be reworked.<\/p>\n\n