Jean Paul Gaultier’s Spring/Summer 1992 Concours d’Élégance collection plays with the idea of beauty contests and performance. It exaggerates glamour while questioning traditional standards.
- Collection: Concours d’Élégance
- Season: Spring/Summer 1992
- Location: Paris — archival location data unavailable
- Theme: Beauty contests and exaggerated glamour
Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford
Why Is the Concours d’Élégance Collection an Iconic Junior Gaultier Release?
Blink, and you’ll miss it, but four minutes into the runaway show of Jean Paul Gaultier’s Spring / Summer collection, you’ll see a model wearing a bodysuit with the same striped pattern and pinup graphic as this vest.
This great show features many iconic Junior items, including the red and black lace-up bustier and short sets, with white rubber buttons and rubber star logos. The lace-up trouser version of the shorts is then featured, topped with a Regency striped blazer. In 2013, Gaultier’s signature wide-leg pants from the Concours d’Élégance collection got a new lease of life in a reedition collaboration with Italy’s Gibò SpA, his original partner in the Eighties and early Nineties.
Inspiration From 1960s Cinema: How Did Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle Inspire Concours d’Élégance?
In an episode of MTV’s House of Style from 1991, the interviewer asks Jean Paul, “Where or what or who was your inspiration for this collection?”
“It was a movie by Jacques Tati, it’s “Mon Oncle”, “My Uncle”, and it’s very funny because it’s at the time of the 60s, you know, with the house [that’s] very modern and some people like the neighbour is like an eccentric woman. Through that crazy extravagance, there’s some very modern fashion.”
The movie is a satire of all things modern and soulless, staged in a pretentiously geometric, automated home that amplifies the inhabitant’s machine-like existence. The theme of the movie is captured in the Concours d’Elegance show, if you are intrigued enough to watch “Mon Oncle”. If you’ve seen the Jil Sander Spring/Summer show of 2012, you can see a catwalk that could be right out of the garden of the film’s villa.
What Role Did Rossy de Palma and the Army of Lovers Play in the Show?
Spanish actress and regular Gaultier model Rossy de Palma makes an appearance, sporting the iconic Converse-style high-heeled canvas sneakers. Keep watching, and you’ll be entertained with not only the Ride the Bullet song by Army of Lovers accompanying the show, but also group members Alexander Bard, Camilla Henemark and Jean-Pierre Barda posing majestically on the runway.
Interestingly (and completely random), a Junior Gaultier t-shirt was produced with caricatures of all three members of the Swedish dance-pop group looking wonderfully camp. I’ve got a few of their records and remember their song “Crucified” being in the charts in 1992.
What Is the Meaning Behind the Victorian Pin-Up Graphic?
Despite the sporty side to the collection, as the collection’s name suggests, there are some very delicate and elegant elements, and this vest captures the collection’s spirit nicely. A wood block engraved image of a beautiful naked Victorian pinup girl sits on top of Peking stripes. She’s encircled with chains and roses, enticing you to hold your gaze on her. A scroll banner motif bears the Junior Gaultier name, in the thick resin-like overlay used frequently in graphic-heavy Junior clothes. There are also T-shirt versions of this design in a mustard colourway.
How Did Jean Paul Gaultier Reinterpret Toile de Jouy Prints?
Toile (cloth in French) de Jouy (the French town Jouy-en-Josas, where it was first manufactured in 1760) is usually an off-white or cream fabric with very detailed, pastoral, single-colour, repeating motifs. The patterns often depict idyllic scenes of farmers working the land, couples frolicking in the countryside and feeding each other grapes, or animals standing next to bales of hay.
On the jacket below, Gaultier subverted the delicate nature of Toile de Jouy by swapping the traditional off-white backdrop with a striking red. Look closely, and you’ll see a leather-clad motorcyclist from the 50s surrounded by cactus and other desert flora, as well as perched eagles.
This is such a cute, tailored jacket with the obligatory 80s shoulder pads, giving a strong silhouette. The catsuit worn underneath the jacket, I believe, is from the “Adam and Eve: Rastas of Today” spring/summer 1991 collection.
How Did Basketball Sneakers Influence the Concours d’Élégance Collection?
The standout item, as far as I am concerned, is the lace-up cropped bustier and matching shorts that sport white rubber buttons and embossed rubber Junior Gaultier-branded circles. These rubber patches feature five-pointed stars that “borrow” the sporting kudos of the Converse All Star logo as seen on the famous high-top basketball shoes. The white laces on the long-sleeved T-shirt’s arms in this design further emphasise the basketball shoe theme, with a tongue element at the cuff. Naomi Campbell wore the red version of this ensemble on the “Concours d’Elegance” runway.
Photograph © juniorgaultier.com
Sporty elegance
This high-top version of the thick-soled, leather and suede sneakers from the men’s “Casanova at the Gym” collection complements the sportswear theme of the women’s show.
The rubber patch on the tongue shamelessly parodies the Converse All Star logo, with the arrow swoosh being a more subtle nod to Nike.
Photograph © juniorgaultier.com
Sporty elegance
These Junior Gaultier canvas boots from the “Elegance Contest” collection are inspired by the original Converse All Stars basketball boots right down to the Junior branded rubber ankle protector.
It may be a simple idea to take a sports shoe and add a wedge heel to transform it into a fun and feminine item, but Gaultier did it so well. The shoes were made in England.
This collection forms one part of the Junior Gaultier collections 1988–1995, a timeline that charts the label’s most important years.