At 17 years old, he decided to send some sketches to different designers. Pierre Cardin felt something powerful in the imagination of this teenager and decided to hire him. Jean Paul Gaultier worked in the Pierre Cardin House for 2 years.

Then, he went to work briefly for Jacques Esterel then Jean Patou.

In 1974, Gaultier has returned to Pierre Cardin but this time to design the collections for the US from Manila. In 1976, Jean Paul Gaultier turned into freelancing and used his Art for several designers. He came up the same year with his first line of jewels: The electronic jewels.

Influenced by his training but also by the lifestyle of London underground, Jean Paul Gaultier presented and produced his first collection for women in October 1976, only 3 years after the beginning of the major gas crisis that slow down the entire economy and affected a lot the fashion industry.

He took a lot of time and will power for Jean Paul Gaultier to find support and appreciation from the Paris Fashion World. After several years of seeking financing in France, he finally found a financing support from a Japanese company.

With this strong support, Jean Paul Gaultier launched his first thematic collection, James Bond, in fall 1979.

In 1983, Jean Paul Gaultier came up with his collection 'Dadaiste' and the famous Corset dress that Madonna made famous few years later. The same year, he boosted his first collection for men.

1985 marked the fashion with a white stone when Jean Paul Gaultier came out with 'une garde-robe pour deux' (a walking closet for two) and the creation of the skirt for men (some would have loved to trough out the stone at him for that). In fact he just followed the idea of his precursor Coco Chanel who took the men clothes to dress women 50 years before.

During the next 10 years, Jean Paul Gaultier launched his underwear collection and presented various collections with different themes like the 'Russian collection' in 1986 or the 'concierge est dans l'escalier' (the super is in the staircase) inspired by the popular Paris between the 2 world wars.

In 1989, he worked for the first time for the Movie industry creating the clothes for the movie of Peter Greenaway 'le cuisinier, le voleur, sa femme et son amant' (the cook, the thief, his wife and her boyfriend).

1990, he became the designer for Madonna, creating her Corset dresses for her world tour: Blond Ambition Tour.

With his new diffusion line called JPG, Jean Paul Gaultier launched in 1993 the perfume for women: 'Jean Paul Gaultier' with a tremendous success.

In the 1990s, jean Paul Gaultier has created again costumes for the 'cinema' such as the moving motion picture of Pedro Almodovar: Kika

In 1995, he launched the perfume for men 'le Male' with a provocative advertising campaign that boosted his predomination in the Perfume Market.

1996, he presented his first-ever haute couture collection that changed forever and for once, the routine in what the couture scene was tight.

On his own, Gaultier rejected the attitudes of the dormant drowsy couture and became the bad boy of Parisian fashion, using his considerable dressmaking and tailoring skills to produce this provocative innovative Haute couture and redefined many fashion traditions.

Today, he is one of the most famous fashion exports (boutique in Paris, London, Japan, Hong-Kong and Recently New York City) and the symbol of the young French fashion.

In his success, he recently opened a 'boutique' on Madison in New York City.