Cones & Corsets

What’s a designer to do when he parts company with the historic French luxury label Hermès? Go back to doing what he does best, of course! Jean-Paul Gaultier, the runway maverick who pioneered corset dresses and promoted the concept of underwear-as-outerwear in the 1990s, returns to his fashion roots this season with high-end lingerie for the Italian label La Perla. The much-hyped and supremely sexy collection of 27 sassy little pieces (nearly all of them hand-made) includes a waist-cinching corset and a reworking of the iconic cone bra Gaultier designed for Madonna’s 1990 Blond Ambition Tour. Those lucky enough to get a ringside seat at Gaultier’s couture show in July got a tantalizing avant-goût of the designer’s first official lingerie collection when US burlesque star Dita Von Teese performed a catwalk striptease unveiling a nude mesh corset. The rest of us will have to wait until the chic black, powder pink and teal blue undies arrive in select Gaultier and La Perla boutiques in early November.

Gaultier 44 ave George V, 8th, 01.44.43.00.44. website

La Perla 20 rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, 8th, 01.43.12.33.60. website

 

Originally published in the September 2010 issue of France Today.