Duran Lantink’s Jean Paul Gaultier Debut: Daring or Disgusting?

By Madison Antino, Senior Writer Edited by Sasha Leitner

This past month of fashion was full of highly-awaited designer debuts after a majority of the biggest brands traded creative directors, seeking to reinvent themselves. One such debut was at Jean Paul Gaultier, where Dutch designer Duran Lantink was appointed as the first permanent creative director since Jean Paul Gaultier himself after a few seasons of rotating guest designers. While other debuts this season (like Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta) were highly praised with standing ovations, Lantink’s debut fell flat. It’s clear he wanted to shock the audience, a common theme in collections from his namesake brand, but the clothing turned out to be ill-fitting, and some looks could barely be considered clothing at all. It was shocking and provoking, but is shock value impactful when the clothing and its quality are lackluster? 

Before retiring from his eponymous label in 2020, Jean Paul Gaultier was known as fashion’s “enfant terrible” for his subversive couture and provocative designs that blurred gender roles, making for a more androgynous label. He collaborated with Madonna for most of his career, making the cone-bra silhouette iconic after she wore it on tour. Gaultier championed diversity on the runway and combined shock factor with consistently impeccable craftsmanship. After the news of his retirement dropped, it was revealed that the fashion house would continue with an annual couture show taken on by a different designer chosen by Gaultier to adopt the house codes into their own. This specific format of rotating designers seemed to be the best possible alternative to losing such an iconic figure, especially after several praised collections by Simone Rocha and Glenn Martens. 

The brand’s appointment of Duran Lantink as the first permanent creative director since Gaultier himself came as a shock at first, given his short design history, but it felt like the ideal choice. In 2024, Lantink was awarded the Karl Lagerfeld Prize from LVMH for his provoking work after making a splash in the industry in just two years, and has cited Jean Paul Gaultier as one of his major influences. 

His Fall 2025 collection went viral for his creative, exaggerated silhouettes, but also the shocking latex pieces that opened and closed the show; model Mica Argañaraz in a top resembling a man’s chest, and a male model sporting latex boobs. Lantink told WWD that the collection was a representation of forms of cosplay and playing with bad taste. However, many found the latex looks gimmicky and thought they mocked women’s bodies. London-based designer Dilara Findikoglu posted to her Instagram story that she was disappointed by a designer she respected, and that it was “tiring to see men using our bodies in this medieval mindset.”

Duran Lantink’s anxiously awaited debut at Jean Paul Gaultier felt like just that—a collection full of gimmicks focused on shocking the audience instead of addressing the house’s DNA. Lantink even said shortly before the show that he was not looking into Gaultier’s extensive archives and wanted to create a fantasy of what he imagined was there. His fantasy of Gaultier included a few recognizable silhouettes, such as an adaptation of the iconic cone bra and several interpretations of the marinière stripes. Yet, he also presented bodysuits with screenprints of naked, hairy male bodies and one too many variations of scuba suits and bikinis. Few critics celebrated the collection. Vanessa Friedman of The New York Times called it “ridiculous.” If Lantink’s sole goal was to provoke his audience, he certainly did, but what he missed was Gaultier’s ability to balance shock with desirability.

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