Jean Paul Gaultier x Pandemonia, spring 2020 couture
Photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com
An heir to fashion’s perpetual “enfant terrible” Jean Paul Gaultier (who retired in 2020) has finally been named. It is Duran Lantink, a 37-year-old Dutchman with a cheeky sense of humor and an eye for exaggerated silhouettes. “I’m really about shape and forms, and trying to create new ideas,” the designer recently told Luke Leitch.
Lantink is also a repurposer, one who is alert to the potential in existing garments and materials. This kind of thinking similarly animated many of Gaultier’s early collections. Gaultier magicked straw placemats into dresses, and proposed tea strainers and copper pot scrubbers as jewelry. It was while feeding his cat that he got the idea of converting metal cans into bracelets; subsequently they became part of the house iconography and fragrance packaging.
Related to the elevation of everyday items into extraordinary objets is an appreciation for a lived-in look. When Gaultier launched couture for spring 1997, the collection included looks made from his own upcycled jeans. In an interview with Fantastic Man, Lantink declared his love of “worn-in clothes.”
Jean Paul Gaultier, spring 2004 couture
Photo: Marcio Madeira
Duran Lantink, spring 2024 ready-to-wear
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
Still, the most visual link between Lantink and Gaultier is their shared preference for blown-up looks. Where the Dutch designer molds pliable foam forms, the Frenchman preferred hot air. He closed his famous Cyberpunk collection of fall 1995 with puffed hats that were inflated by the hand-held bonnet hair dryers—of the sort his grandmother used to use. The designs, he said, were “flat, and when you put the air—poof—it becomes like an erection.” Lantink has a lot to build on at Gaultier.
Jean Paul Gaultier, fall 1995 ready-to-wear
Photo: Condé Nast Archive
Duran Lantink, fall 2024 ready-to-wear
Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
Jean Paul Gaultier, fall 1995 ready-to-wear
Photo: Condé Nast Archive
Jean Paul Gaultier, spring 2002 couture
Photo: Antoine de Parseval / Shoot Digital for Style.com
Duran Lantink, fall 2023 ready-to-wear
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Jean Paul Gaultier, fall 2013 couture
Photo: Yannis Vlamos / InDigital | GoRunway
Duran Lantink, fall 2025 ready-to-wear
Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
Jean Paul Gaultier, spring 1998 couture
Photo: Condé Nast Archive
Duran Lantink, fall 2025 ready-to-wear
Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
Jean Paul Gaultier, spring 2001 couture
Photo: JB Villareal / Shoot Digital for Style.com
Duran Lantink, spring 2024 ready-to-wear
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
Jean Paul Gaultier, spring 2003 ready-to-wear
Photo: Shoot Digital for Style.com
Duran Lantink, fall 2023 ready-to-wear
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Jean Paul Gaultier, spring 1997 ready-to-wear
Photo: Condé Nast Archive
Duran Lantink, fall 2023 ready-to-wear
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Jean Paul Gaultier, fall 2002 ready-to-wear
Photo: Antoine de Parseval / Shoot Digital for Style.com
Duran Lantink, fall 2021 ready-to-wear
Photo: Abel Minnee / Courtesy of Duran Lantink
Jean Paul Gaultier,fall 2017 couture
Photo: Yannis Vlamos / Indigital.tv
Duran Lantink, fall 2024 ready-to-wear
Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
Madonna on her Blonde Ambition tour, July 1990.
Photo: Gie Knaeps / Getty Images
Duran Lantink, spring 2025 ready-to-wear
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Iman for Jean Paul Gaultier designed cone bra
Photo: Rose Hartman / Getty Images
Jean Paul Gaultier, fall 1995 ready-to-wear
Photo: Condé Nast Archive
Duran Lantink, spring 2025 ready-to-wear
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Jean Paul Gaultier, fall 2002 ready-to-wear
Photo: Antoine de Parseval / Shoot Digital for Style.com
