The Vibe :
⊹ Marie Antoinette volume rebuilt with futuristic tools and strange proportions
⊹ Ballgowns projecting forward, sideways and far beyond the body
⊹ Latex torsos and molded leather pushing couture into uncanny territory
⊹ Historical tailoring grounded by velvet ribbons, mules and recycled denim
Duran Lantink’s first haute couture collection for Jean Paul Gaultier did not arrive quietly. Fall 2026 pushed dresses forward, sideways and well past the wearer’s personal space, mixing Marie Antoinette’s courtly excess with the graphic body experiments Jean Paul Gaultier created for Régine Chopinot’s 1985 dance work Le Défilé. The historical references were there, but Lantink treated them like raw material rather than rules.
A bell-shaped dress was 3D printed, flocked by hand and covered in lace motifs, giving the familiar ballgown a hard, almost manufactured outline. Elsewhere, a tubular column disappeared beneath flamingo-pink feathers, while layers of tulle curved around the body like an optical illusion. These were not gowns designed to flatter from every angle. They changed the entire frame around the wearer, making the room adjust to them instead.
The stranger looks carried Lantink’s own fingerprints most clearly. Whitaker & Malem produced a burgundy molded-leather bustier with a futuristic shell, while Leon Dame wore a wavy latex torso complete with hand-painted moles. The piece echoed the viral body tops from Duran Lantink, but the couture treatment made the fake anatomy even more convincing and more ridiculous. That mix of technical seriousness and visual mischief fits naturally inside Jean Paul Gaultier, a house that has never expected the body to stay inside its assigned shape.
Not every look demanded its own doorway. Velvet knickerbockers, jewel-toned satin mules and long black hair ribbons brought the Versailles reference down to a more wearable scale. A fitted jacket made from three upcycled Levi’s denim jackets also offered a sharper route through the collection, connecting the reconstructed attitude of Gaultier’s Spring 2026 couture to the tailored focus of its Fall 2026 ready-to-wear. Lantink’s debut may have centered on extreme dresses, but the jackets suggested he understands that commanding attention does not always require six feet of tulle.
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Brand DNA
Launched in Paris in 1976, Jean Paul Gaultier rewrites fashion codes through corsetry, sailor stripes, gender-fluid tailoring, and irreverent wit. Since 2021, guest couturiers have reimagined the house each season.
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