A selection of pieces from Riccardo Slavik’s Gaultier archive

PHOTOS AND STYLING RICCARDO SLAVIK

GROOMING AUGUSTO PICERNI

MODELS SIMON JUSTUS AT NOLOGO @snioms, ZACK CARTON AT YU MODELS @zack.carton

ALL CLOTHES JEAN PAUL GAULTIER

ALL ACCESSORIES STYLIST’S OWN UNLESS SPECIFIED

‘I think I was already aware of Gaultier when I was in high school, I was living in a tiny village in Sardinia but we often went to Cagliari, the nearest big city and I’d be able to get my hands on The Face, i-D, Per Lui and Lei ( both  helmed by Franca Sozzani at the time). I was fascinated by alternative fashion, by London street style, punk, new wave, the Blitz Kids, Madonna, Boy George, Buffalo, Ray Petri, Judy Blame, Tony Viramontes …and Jean Paul Gaultier’s fashion was a perfect mix of French chic, British extravagance, irony, camp and unashamed queerness. Even though Fashion has always been teeming with queer people, back in the mid-to-late 1980s few creatives dared to embrace their queerness and nobody did it as joyously as JPG. 

When I moved to Milano to study Fashion Design at Marangoni one of the first things I did was visit the Jean Paul Gaultier store in Via Della Spiga and when I won 2 million liras for a Velcorex velvet competition ( a children collection if you can believe it) I opened a bank account against my parents’ wishes and bought a Gaultier double breasted jumpsuit in iridescent wool from FW 1989, I bought a 50 which was huge for me but I didn’t care, I wore it all the time. Unfortunately the wool was so good moths devoured it in a year or so… I was heartbroken, I kept it with all its holes in a closet for ages. I used to buy Gaultier at a discount place called Il Salvagente, you could find stuff that was one or two seasons old for amazing prices, I bought the madras sari dress from Spring Summer 1985 because I couldn’t understand how it worked and then gifted it to my mother, who actually used to wear it in the small Sardinian village during the summer.

I even met Jean Paul once, at Contatto, Milan’s trashy after hours club, the place was almost empty, I was coming from a party where someone had pushed me in a pool in my full Junior Gaultier SS 1989 leopard print look, I was still somewhat damp, and I saw him standing outside the ‘back room’, he saw me and said ‘ Tanel is inside! ‘ and winked … I was such a Tanel fan I even sported the same haircut, I obviously rushed in, but I guess he wasn’t into Gaultier stans in leopard print at the time. I did give them a lift to their hotel though and managed to have a couple of drunken quickies with Tanel years later when I was working at Plastic…

In Fashion we often fall in and out of love with things, a new trend, a new silhouette a new mood, might make you rethink your allegiances to certain labels, designers etc. I only bought Dior when John Galliano was designing womenswear and Hedi Slimane was designing menswear ( unfortunately Hedi’s Slim fit doesn’t fit anymore) I stopped wearing Westwood for a while for political reasons… I lost a lot of my old Gaultier pieces and didn’t wear them for quite a while, mainly for their fit, until I tried on my Junior leopard print denim jacket a few years ago, suddenly the 80s trapezoid shape was hot again and the jacket still looked great because I hadn’t worn it in ages. I’m obsessed with Gaultier’s Gibò era nowadays, the boxy shapes, the big shoulders, the experimental use of fabrics and knitwear.

We all go through phases, I’ve had my Gaultier phase, my Westwood phase, my Dior phase, my Raf Simons phase, my Jeremy Scott phase,and I’ve reached a time in my life where I don’t care to buy into whatever the new ‘trend’ might be. Fashion has forgone trends anyway, brands sell The Brand, people buy what they like, or the crave that ‘Hot Item’ of the week, but Fashion is dead, it’s going nowhere, just striving to sell as much and to as many people it possibly can. Even before falling into Gaultier mania again I’d stopped buying anything unless it was at least on sale, or possibly from one or two seasons before, my reasoning being: 1) fashion has gotten too expensive and the quality is gone down the drain, 2) if I still like something after it’s gone out of season there’s a good chance I’ll like it still after a few years.

Nowadays I’d rather buy vintage, or stuff from a few seasons ago. And I’m selling a lot of the stuff I don’t wear, can’t fit in anymore or regret buying. I’d rather sell something cheap to someone who’ll enjoy it than throw it away. That’s why I’ll do a pop-up event at PWC Milano in October, I’ll sell stuff I don’t use anymore, stuff that doesn’t fit me anymore, and even some of the Gaultier. I love all of those pieces but some I bought because they were cheap, some because I somehow hoped I’d fit into them ( surprise, I didn’t), now it’s time to release them again into the wild and hopefully find something similar that fits. 

One of the reasons I fell back into the Jean Paul Gaultier spiral is the content that accounts like @gaultier_forever and @gaultierjuniorhigh post on Instagram, I love the history of fashion I love research, I love trying to discover what season something is from.

I also love the freedom that sites like vestiarie.com and apps like Vinted give you to search for grails and deals practically anytime anywhere. Bargain hunting is addictive let me tell you, nothing beats finding a Jean Paul Gaultier pour Gibó SS 1986 jacket and skirt set for 40€ . 

Since rediscovering my passion for Jean Paul Gaultier when we shot last special I’ve managed to acquire some incredible new pieces ( some were stolen at the end of May when thieves broke into my house, but thankfully they were not fashionable thieves and left all the best stuff) and I’m happy to finally show them to you. 

This special was shot on film with a Canon Prima Super 155 camera because the thieves stole all of my cameras so that’s what I’m working with now. I’m really happy with how the shoot turned out, I managed to shoot a lot of clothes despite time limits and I even finally managed to work with Simon, a model I’d been pushing on my students since last November. 

Hope you like it too.’  Riccardo Slavik

Circuitry Cardigan, Jean Paul Gaultier Maille Fall Winter 1995-96, ‘Super JPG vs Virus Man’ print top JPG Fall Winter 1995-96, cross earring Jean Paul Gaultier Pour Gibò Fall Winter 1987-88, razorblade earring Jean Paul Gaultier, leather hat Dsquared2 stylists own

Trompe L’Oeil t-shirt, Gaultier Jean’s Fall Winter 1997-98, printed jeans Gaultier Jean’s Spring Summer 1997