Fashion career profile
Jean Paul Gaultier
Jean Paul Gaultier is a French designer who built a career around questioning the boundaries between couture, street dress and ideas of gender. He did not attend fashion school; Pierre Cardin hired him as an assistant in 1970, followed by work with other Paris designers. Gaultier presented his first collection under his own name in 1976 and developed a house language that turned familiar garments and objects into unexpected fashion: corsetry moved to the outside, skirts entered menswear, and a tin can became a perfume presentation case. His menswear line began with the 1984 Male Object collection, and he launched a couture line in 1997. Gaultier also worked across costume, film and performance, including Madonna’s Blond Ambition tour. He announced the end of his ready-to-wear line in 2014 to focus on couture. His own house, Hermès womenswear work and later guest-designer projects are kept as distinct roles in the career record.
- Role
- Founder, Jean Paul Gaultier
- Nationality
- French
- Age
- 74
- Career appointments
- 2
- Fashion houses
- 2
- Pierre Cardin — Assistant designer1970–End not documented · status not documented
- Jean Paul GaultierThe Impression · 2026-10-01
- Jean Paul GaultierThe Impression · 2026-10-01
- Jean Paul GaultierThe Impression · 2026-10-01
- Pierre Cardin: Began as Cardin’s assistant in 1970The appointment came on Gaultier’s eighteenth birthday; the designer’s own biography states that he did not attend fashion school. · amfAR
- First collection: Presented his first collection under his own name in 1976The founder-led house role is separate from his earlier assistant work and later Hermès appointment. · Jean Paul Gaultier
- Menswear: Launched the Male Object menswear line in 1984The line made the skirt and other traditionally gendered dress codes part of his menswear vocabulary. · amfAR
- Ready-to-wear transition: Announced in 2014 that he would end ready-to-wear to focus on coutureThe announcement describes a change in the house’s presentation format, not the end of Gaultier’s design career. · amfAR
- 1970 — Begins work with Pierre CardinCardin hires Gaultier as an assistant on his eighteenth birthday.
- 1976 — Presents his first collectionThe first show begins the founder-led history of his namesake house.
- 1984 — Launches the Male Object menswear lineThe collection makes menswear an explicit part of his house’s design vocabulary.
- 1997 — Launches Gaultier Paris haute coutureThe couture line adds a separate format to the house’s ready-to-wear work.
- 2003–2010 — Artistic Director, Women’s Ready-to-Wear — HermèsHistorical appointment · Vogue
- 1976–2020 — Founder and Creative Director — Jean Paul GaultierHistorical appointment · Puig