Jean Paul Gaultier’s guest designer series has long been a playground for some of fashion’s most inventive minds, and for Spring/Summer 2025, Ludovic de Saint Sernin took the helm with a collection that crashed through expectations like waves against the shore. Titled Le Naufrage - French for "The Shipwreck", the collection unfolded like a mythological tale, drenching couture in sensuality, spectacle, and storytelling.
In the dimly lit runway space at Gaultier’s historic Paris headquarters, the show began with an eerie scream, sending chills through the audience before a procession of shipwrecked muses took the stage. De Saint Sernin envisioned them as lost sailors, seductive mermaids, and rogue pirates, each one a character in a fashion odyssey that blurred the lines between mythology, romance, and raw human desire.
The designer, known for his minimalist-yet-sensual approach, leaned into Gaultier’s legacy of audacious couture, crafting sculpted corsetry, cutout gowns, and diaphanous slips dripping in embellishment.
Jean Paul Gaultier’s signature codes - the sailor stripes, the corsets, the playful irreverence - were reimagined through de Saint Sernin’s lens. The designer inhabited the Gaultier universe and made it his own. A standout moment came when he reinterpreted Gaultier’s famous 1997 ship-headpiece look, turning it into a couture fantasy that felt both archival and brand new.
Beyond the clothes, the show was a study in contrasts: soft, billowing fabrics against structured, body-conscious silhouettes; raw sensuality juxtaposed with meticulous craftsmanship. The collection breathed life into the idea that haute couture isn’t just about clothing - it’s about storytelling, emotion, and the kind of fantasy that lingers long after the final model exits the runway.
If this truly marks the end of Gaultier’s rotating guest designer experiment, Le Naufrage ensured it went out with a breathtaking, unapologetic finale.
