At the top of the main staircase, past a large mirror and a vintage bicycle covered in white satin – on which model Coco Rocha closed, as a bride, the couture show for fall-winter 2017, inspired by Snow Queen –, the visitor finds himself there, intrigued. With a glance, he can embrace everything. At the same time, on the wall, the rococo moldings where one can distinguish a lion’s head and a coat of arms in three letters: “ADP”for “To the future of the proletariat”, an inscription which dates from the construction of the building, in 1912.
And, next to it, a blue neon “Gaultier” in capital letters, above two red hinged doors, those that the couturier had recreated, on the occasion of the presentation of a collection in 2016, after the entrance to the Palace, the hedonistic Parisian club where he It was good to sweat in the 1980s. Heritage and celebration, history and gossip, the past left untouched and the one being reinvented: the whole soul of Jean Paul Gaultier.
Bright and grand
Since 2004, it’s here, at 325 rue Saint-Martin, in the 3e arrondissement of Paris, which JPG has set up its world, taking possession of 5,000 square meters and seven floors – “like a majestic place that I would have squatted”summarizes by email the creator, withdrawn from fashion since 2020.
Gaultier’s geography already included rue Pasteur in Arcueil, where his beloved grandmother lived; the planetarium of the Palais de la Découverte where its first fashion show was held in 1976; a lecherous Brest à la Genet, populated by heartbreakers in striped sailor tops; and all that Paris has of cabaret scenes, from the Latin Paradise to the Folies-Bergère, where he has unveiled so many parades and shows in fifty years of career. the “325”he will have been this luminous and grandiose space “which corresponded to the dream image that one can have of a fashion house. A place to organize the parades and which brings together all the teams, formerly scattered over several sites ».
For the first time, the address is open to the general public, thanks to an exhibition “off” of Paris Photo, from November 10 to 12. The impetus comes, in particular, from Florence Tétier, creative director of the brand since the departure of the couturier. “Bringing people who are curious to discover this place to us is important and consistent with our mission now: to celebrate the work of Jean Paul through new eyes”she rejoices, sitting on a red sofa in the ballroom, her heart pounding. “325”. This is where the haute couture shows are held in January and July.
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