Jean Paul Gaultier

Le Male is one of the most influential men's fragrances ever made, and the brand itself calls it a flagship product that represents its core values. It was the top-selling men's fragrance in the European Union in 2012 and holds a strong position in the US and Australia. If you want a recognisable, characterful scent with real heritage it is an easy yes; if you prefer something quiet and modern, sample it first.

The women's corset with a cone bra, introduced in 1984, is the single piece most associated with Gaultier and is built as a sculptural garment as much as underwear. Vintage and archive examples are prized as collectible fashion objects, which speaks to how they were made and how they have held up. As with any couture-leaning corsetry, fit and structure vary by design, so the value is in the icon as much as the engineering.

The two are linked: Gaultier was creative director of Hermès from 2003 to 2010, succeeding Martin Margiela, and Hermès held a stake in his label. Hermès is the quiet pinnacle of French leather and craft, whereas Gaultier's own house is the irreverent enfant terrible of French fashion, built on corsets, marinières, and gender play. They represent two very different moods of Parisian luxury.

Gaultier is a French haute couture and prêt-à-porter designer known for unconventional, theatrical designs. His signature motifs are the corset and cone bra, the Breton-stripe marinière, and even tin cans, and he is widely credited as the enfant terrible of the industry. To the wider public he is also known for the Le Male and Classique fragrances.

Gaultier designed Madonna's cone bra for her 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour, one of the most famous costume collaborations in pop history. He went on to dress her again, including the wardrobe for the 2006 Confessions Tour, a corset for the 2012 MDNA Tour, and a piece for the 2023 Celebration Tour. The partnership did as much as the runway to make his name globally recognisable.

Gaultier founded his eponymous fashion label in 1982, having released his first individual collection in 1976. Born in a Paris suburb on 24 June 1952, he never had formal design training; instead he sent sketches to couturiers as a teenager and was hired as an assistant by Pierre Cardin in 1970. He expanded into fragrances in 1993.

The marinière, the French Breton-striped top, is one of Gaultier's defining motifs and runs through his work and his fragrance bottles. His 1983 collection 'Boy Toy' relaunched the marinière for men, and it has become shorthand for the house. It sits alongside the corset as the most quoted Gaultier signature.

Yes. Gaultier announced on 17 January 2020 that his next Paris show would be his last, and he retired from the runway after his 50th-anniversary haute couture show in January 2020. Rather than name a single successor, he set up a model in which a guest designer rotates each season, choosing Chitose Abe as the first. The house continues without him at the drawing board.

The fragrances have been licensed by Puig since 1 January 2016, having previously been handled by Shiseido's Beauté Prestige International. Puig acquired the license and now controls both the fashion and fragrance divisions of the brand. The Classique, Le Male, and Scandal lines have been the core of the fragrance offer.

Gaultier built his reputation by breaking rules: he sent skirts and kilts down the runway for men in 1984, cast older models, larger bodies, and heavily tattooed faces, and treated gender as fluid long before it was mainstream. That mix of provocation and genuine tailoring mastery, plus headline collaborations with Madonna and others, made him a household name well beyond fashion circles.

He did, and notably so. Beyond Madonna's stage costumes, Gaultier created the wardrobes for The Fifth Element (1997), The City of Lost Children (1995), Bad Education (2004), and The Skin I Live In (2011). His cinematic, sculptural sensibility translated naturally from the catwalk to the screen.