The recent collaboration between Haider Ackermann and Jean Paul Gaultier was a resounding success. The showcase, held under Gaultier’s roof, highlighted the importance of design and featured models who used their collective intelligence to bring it to life. Gaultier’s haute couture ateliers were reflected in the sharp tailoring and expert draping on display.
Ackermann is the fourth designer chosen for a one-season collaboration with Gaultier since his retirement, following in the footsteps of Olivier Rousteing, Glenn Martens and Chitose Abe. Though Ackermann may not have been the obvious choice for this collaboration, as he admitted before the show, “I don’t have a sense of humor at all! I have my gravity, and he has his generosity and joy – we are two worlds apart. But at the same time, we have many things in common. Because we both love women, we adore women, respect women“.
The success of the collaboration was confirmed by the standing ovation and applause from international guests and top models, including Maria Carla Boscono and Aymeline Valade, who were seen embracing the designers with tears in their eyes.
The Spring/Summer 2023 collection explores the more essential side of Gaultier’s soul and crosses it with Ackermann’s clean cuts, color, and fluidity. Feathered dresses that adorned the necklines of long architectural gowns brought to mind Gaultier’s first haute couture collection in 1997, where huge parrot feathers adorned the shoulders of a strapless dress. The lines of menswear tailoring that became dresses echoed the Spring/Summer 2004 and Spring/Summer 2013 couture shows.
There were no exaggerations or noise in the collection, and the music was a narrative voice instead of having a real rhythm. The show was an hour long due to the slow progression of the models, similar to the first couture shows where models paraded in a sinuous calm, allowing the audience to fully admire outfit after outfit.
This collection was in perfect Haider Ackermann style, going against the grain, in defiance of trends and the speed of social networks, and allowing the pleasure of good fashion to be felt without the need for great strategies.
