Amazing Jewish Culture Influences Junior Gaultier “Chic Rabbis” F/W 1993-94

Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fall/Winter 1993–94 Chic Rabbis collection draws on religious dress and tailoring traditions. It transforms formal garments into modern fashion statements. The collection is one of Junior Gaultier’s most distinctive explorations of cultural reference, drawing on elements of Jewish dress and symbolism and reinterpreting them through the house’s characteristic approach to transformation and design.

גוניור – the use of Hebrew text in Junior Gaultier’s Chic Rabbis collection

“Chic Rabbis” was the title Jean Paul Gaultier gave to his fall/winter 1993 show in Paris, inspired by Hasidic Jewish dress and culture. In the show, both the women’s “Chic Rabbis” collection and the men’s “Les Vikings” collection shared the stage. This was not uncommon, with 1992’s women’s collection “Europe of the Future” and the men’s collection “Photography Maniacs” F/W 1992-93 appearing on the same runway. The “Adam and Eve: Rastas of Today” collection of 1991 was a joint show too, and made for a very interesting event.

Rabbis on the runway – reinterpreting traditional Jewish dress

The runway show is quite spectacular with lustrous black jacquard, thick velvet, and furs forming coats, tunics and VERY high-waisted trousers. Both male and female models sport the Jewish Payot side curls, whose basis is in Biblical scripture stating that a man should not “round the corner of his head”.

Gaultier also introduces his own take on Shtreimels, a type of fur hat that Jewish men wear on Jewish holidays and festivities that are made from the tails of Canadian or Russian sable. With a focus on headwear, the devil-horned beanie from the “Les Vikings” collection makes an appearance. These are much sought after and understandably sell for hundreds of pounds.

As jackets become cropped, the more opulent styling relaxes into something more street-oriented. Kippah caps cover the crown of the heads of some models as the waistlines get even higher!

Animal prints and light-coloured fur coats made from small pelts mix with splatter patterns in perfect harmony on both males and females. Brown kilts over trousers, waistcoats over shirts, layer upon layer are lifted with opulent metallic shirts and jackets. Tailored coats and jackets in dark shades of grey adorn both sexes. Tartan in all colours floods the runway, and then the tailoring that I associate with the collection makes its appearance. Brown striped lapels on grey woollen plaid coats intersected with chocolate-coloured herringbone panels sound like they wouldn’t work… but they do, perfectly. Inside jacket pockets placed on the outside, even with the accompanying tailor’s label, hardly register as you try to take in all of the exquisite detailing.

Cultural reference, interpretation, and controversy in Chic Rabbis

Cultural appropriation is defined as members of a majority group adopting cultural elements of a minority group offensively or inappropriately for their own profit. I personally think that, for example, a non-Chinese person wearing a traditional Chinese dress is not cultural appropriation. And neither was Kim Kardashian wearing a nose ring chain at Jean Paul Gaultier’s show for last year’s Paris Haute Couture Week. In my opinion.

I can, however, understand the angry response from the Hasidic community following “Chic Rabbis”, even though the biggest complaint was the female models wearing traditionally male garments. Gaultier later explained that the inspiration for the Chic Rabbis collection was a trip to New York in the early 1990s.

“I saw a group of rabbis leaving the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue. I found them very beautiful, very elegant, with their hats and their huge coats flapping in the wind. It was a fantastic scene.”

Jean Paul Gaultier

If you watch the 1994 Douglas Keeve documentary “Unzipped”, the model Christy Turlington reminisces about the Chic Rabbis show.

“I had braids then I had the little curls here. They even had a lot of bald men, but it was punk and Hasidic, so there was booing at the end.”

Christy Turlington

In the documentary, journalist Ingrid Sischy defends Gaultier’s mix of politics and culture in fashion, which is present in all of his collections, although she does admit.

“I didn’t hear anybody booing, but I certainly heard afterwards ‘Oh my god, Gaultier’s gone too far, now he’s done a thing about Hasidic Jews.’ Jews are going to be upset and people are going to say, this is a sacred thing.”

Ingrid Sischy

The label as part of the collection’s visual identity

Even the internal labels reflect the collection’s focus, with Gaultier’s name rendered in Hebrew, next to a caricature of a man’s head, possibly Jewish, reinforcing its engagement with cultural reference at every level of design. Variants of the Hebrew “Paris” label appear not only inside garments but also as external patches on jackets and Shtreimels, reflecting Gaultier’s tendency to blur the line between inside and outside by bringing normally hidden elements into view.

This attention to detail shows how Gaultier carries his ideas through the whole garment, not just in the overall look. By putting his name in Hebrew, Gaultier makes the collection feel more personal and directly connected to him.

How the Junior Gaultier graphic T-shirts carry the collection’s visual identity

The artwork on the shirt is very appealing, with an engraving of three Jewish pipe players walking together on top of vertical stripes, a motif often used by Gaultier. Under the figures is the Hebrew text “גוניור” in thick gold paint (similar to that used on my “The Nightmare” T-shirt), which translates as “Junior”. The piper’s earring on the left is also coloured gold.

There’s another version (below) of this style using images of old engravings and the same “גוניור” text. Beyond the artwork, there’s nothing noteworthy about the t-shirt, which is made of gossamer-thin cotton, which is slightly disappointing.

This collection contributes to the wider Junior Gaultier collections 1988–1995, documenting the label’s defining era.