After a season of overwhelmingly commercial and wearable menswear, Spring 2024 couture in Paris came like a breath of fresh air. In the breeze came the newest guest collection for Jean Paul Gaultier, designed by Ireland’s own Simone Rocha. As the sixth guest designer for the brand since Gaultier’s retirement in 2020, Rocha’s couture debut was highly anticipated and did not disappoint. In Rocha’s own words, the collection toyed with the connection between the DNA of the Jean Paul Gaultier brand and the “provocative, playful, beautiful, [and] modern.” In her use of Gaultier’s feminine and fetishistic style she birthed a couture collection that was equally sweet and subversive.
Opening with a sheer organza dress constructed with a pannier skirt and motifs taken from Gaultier’s 1994 Tatouage collection, the show took signatures from the Gaultier archive and brought them into the 2020s through Rocha’s eyes. In proper Simone Rocha fashion there were ribbons and bows of every coquette girl’s wildest fantasies with striking and distinctly-JPG twists like the bow earrings made of hair. Her mastery of structure and craft was evident in the meticulous boning work and corsetry cross-laced with pink and black ribbons.
Rocha also pulled from Gaultier’s nautical past with sailor hats adorned with ribbons and floral embellishments, and a couture-take on a seashell bra more fabulous than any little girl dreaming of being a mermaid could possibly imagine. She included nods to the designer himself with her reimagining of his signature breton stripes, this time with each stripe crafted from ribbons and bows loosely draped across a sheer nude top. There were hot pants and bloomers galore shining amongst Rocha’s twisted take on the Gaultier signature cone-bra. This time around we saw the cone-bra reimagined as rosettes and upturned rose thorns, including look 15’s rose thorn bra and corset with three layers of garters falling over pink bloomers. The delicateness of the ballet-pink master-crafted corset perfectly contrasted the perversion of the thorny bust, garters bordering excess, and pinched square toe of the shoes.
The gowns Rocha showed featured voluminous silhouettes and brought a dark drama to the collection, a standout of which included a black skirt gathered at the knees, with dainty red flowers nearly jumping from the dress. Rocha’s closing couture bride walked with almost jellyfish-like motion from the base of the warm-white lace tulip skirt. Veiled with white sheer fabric, the look also featured metallic bow earrings clasped with the ear centered in the knot.
All in all, Rocha’s collection for Jean Paul Gaultier showcased her ability as a designer to adapt to different brand codes and beautifully merge her own style with the codes and history of a legacy brand. As Rocha’s solo shows continue to be a stand out amongst the stacked London lineup, I can’t help but imagine her potential return to Paris behind a name larger than her own. In a world that seems to grow further and further away from whimsy and desire, the delight I felt as I first watched Rocha’s JPG show can only be expressed through the endless smiles and applause Gaultier himself let out as he too experienced her interpretation of his legacy for the first time. Here’s to a season of couture that reminded us to dream.
Words and graphic by Flora Medina