The man who gave the world Madonna's pointy cone bra has outdone himself, serving up padded fanny puffs and even a turtle-shell shaped pregnant lady belly piece with his spring-summer 2010 ready-to-wear collection Saturday.
Gaultier mixed his trademark lingerie-as-outerwear look with hip-hop inspired streetwear, layering powder pink bras, garters, bustiers and padded and pointy prostheses of all ilk under and over extra-wide jeans, funky overalls and military coats.
Pointy bras were built into a pair of oversized overalls, the straps crisscrossing in the back to form Gaultier's signature X, while the tails of an oversized sports coat were cut away to reveal a pair of round bottom-covers.
One model even wore a bustier in chocolate brown with a massive convex pregnant belly cover.
"Instead of filling oneself with silicone or collagen, why not try these prostheses, which can be taken off," said Gaultier with a laugh. "It's perfect!"
French fashion's one-time enfant terrible described the collection as a "return to the source."
"I wanted to get away from the increasing bourgeois understanding of fashion. When I started there was a real desire to be individualistic and to mark our difference from one another," he told reporters in a backstage interview.
Though there was nothing earth-shatteringly innovating about the collection - Gaultier has been incorporating street fashion and foundations into his collection since the start of his career more than 30 years ago - the show still radiated energy, excitement and an endless sense of possibility.
In a welcome change from many of Paris' blond-haired, blue-eyed catwalks, Gaultier's models were of all different of ethnic origins, their brown, black, blond and red hair pulled into playful side pigtails. Many of them sported fake tattoos reading "Jean Paul" in Gothic lettering across their necks or down their arms, which were piled high with stacks of Rajhastani-inspired bangles.
Gaultier's shows, always held at his label's central Paris headquarters, never fail to draw celebrity guests and Saturday's show was no exception. Rihanna, a regular at this season's Paris shows, turned out, as did Janet Jackson, Katy Perry, French actress and loyal Gaultier friend and fan Catherine Deneuve, and burlesque star Dita Von Teese.
