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 Born
in April 1952, Jean Paul Gaultier is known as the
'Terrible
kid of the Fashion Industry'. He grew
up in the suburb of
Paris, Arcueil where he was often skipping class to
spend his time drawing
imaginary collections. In his teenager period, he
liked to present tiny collections
of clothes to suit his mother and to learn make-up
with his grandmother.
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.
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