Jean Paul Gaultier has tapped visionary Shayne Oliver, co-founder of Hood By Air, to design a boundary-pushing ready-to-wear capsule collection. This unique partnership injects a dose of youthful energy into Jean Paul Gaultier’s iconic brand, while allowing Oliver to explore his design sensibilities in a new context.
Shayne Oliver, who left Hood By Air last year, brings his signature deconstructed streetwear aesthetic to a 50-piece capsule collection for Jean Paul Gaultier. Expect distressed fabrics, gauzy overlays and the return of Jean Paul Gaultier’s iconic bumster silhouette, all reimagined through Shayne Oliver’s New York counterculture lens. Wide-legged denim takes center stage alongside playful logos for imaginary streetwear labels such as “GLTR Sportswear”. The collection promises an exciting fusion of Gaultier’s gothic romance and lighthearted kitsch with Oliver’s bold social commentary and runway-worthy reinterpretations of streetwear staples.
The launch, strategically planned for May 6 in New York City, coincides with the prestigious Met Gala. Jean Paul Gaultier plans to celebrate the collaboration with an after-hours party, solidifying his connection to American fashion’s biggest night.
Shayne Oliver acknowledges the influence Jean Paul Gaultier has had on his own design journey. “I didn’t want the collection to just be about putting a streetwear veneer on something high fashion,” Shayne Oliver tells Business of Fashion in a phone interview. “It felt more natural to me to critique and amplify the elements I find essential in the modern wardrobe.” He highlights the “common ground” he discovered in Jean Paul Gaultier’s approach to challenging fashion conventions, particularly the designer’s bold act of introducing casual denim to the haute couture runway in the 1990s. This mirrors Oliver’s own disruptive approach, where he has taken staple American streetwear pieces like T-shirts and denim, exaggerated and twisted them into thought-provoking garments that seamlessly blend social commentary with high fashion.
Shayne Oliver describes the collection as an exploration of “utilitarianism, femininity, power and play,” designed to be as comfortable on the runway as it is in everyday life, even “from couture to the bedroom floor.” This balance between the provocative and the wearable has the potential to reignite interest in Jean Paul Gaultier’s more upscale ready-to-wear pieces.
In recent years, the Jean Paul Gaultier brand has focused primarily on its theatrical haute couture collections at one end of the spectrum and its commercially successful sailor-striped T-shirts and perfumes at the other. The collaboration with Oliver represents a strategic move to revitalize Gaultier’s mid-range ready-to-wear offerings.
Following the suspension of its ready-to-wear line in 2014 and Jean Paul Gaultier’s own departure from designing haute couture collections in 2020, the brand, now owned by Spanish perfume giant Puig, has experimented with a guest designer program. Through this program, renowned designers such as Chitose Abe of Sacai, Glenn Martens of Y/Project, Simone Rocha, Haider Ackermann, and Olivier Rousteing have reinterpreted Jean Paul Gaultier’s haute couture legacy.
While the guest designer program has kept the brand’s name at the forefront of high fashion, Jean Paul Gaultier has also been quietly rebuilding his ready-to-wear presence. This has included accessible capsules inspired by past haute couture collections, reissued archival looks, and collaborations with contemporary brands like London-based KNWLS.
The upcoming collaboration with Shayne Oliver is a significant step in this direction. Puig’s recent plans for an initial public offering on the Spanish stock exchange to raise 2.5 billion euros further underlines the company’s commitment to growth and innovation. With Shayne Oliver’s creative spark reinvigorating Jean Paul Gaultier’s mid-range ready-to-wear, the brand’s future seems poised for an exciting new chapter.