Jean Paul Gaultier: Fashionistas split over ‘unintentional’ safety pins in new couture show

One fashion commentator accused the fashion house of putting ‘marketing before a craft’

One of the safety pins confusing fashion observers (TikTok/SHOWstudio)

Fashionistas are split over the controversial use of safety pins in Olivier Rousteing’s recent couture show for Jean Paul Gaultier.

The show was criticised by some commentators for sending models down the runway with safety pins still on their garments.

The Balmain creative director took inspiration from the archives to create the guest-designed haute couture Fall/Winter collection, which took place in Paris earlier this week.

Anna Wintour, Kim Kardashian, her daughter, North West, and her mother, Kris Jenner, were just some of the celebrities on the FROW at the highly anticipated event.

Models hit the runway in heart-shaped bodices in supersized couture pins and wrist pincushions, but some eagle-eyed attendees were in doubt over the placement of some of the pins.

Calum Knight of SHOWstudio spotted a number of safety pins attaching garments together, citing a “problem” relationship between creative director and Jean Paul Gaultier’s team on the ground.

In a TikTok entitled, “Should couture be produced as fast fashion?” Knight – SHOWstudio’s creative director, and son of legendary fashion photographer, Nick Knight – criticised the relationship between Rousteing and Jean Paul’s Gaultier team over a series of photographs from the show displaying garments with visible safety pins on.

“You need time,” he began. “Couture isn’t a machine. You need to learn to work with your petites mains. You need to train your team. You need to work with them.”

He went on to criticise the Gaultier team for “rehashing ideas they’ve had for years” under a new creative director “who hasn’t worked with them and they don’t have the relationships with.”

He added: “And that was a problem today because lots of the collection was safety-pinned. And you could see it very evidently from the third row where we were sitting. Lots of shoulder-pads safety pinned on, dresses safety-pinned at the back, at the boob to stop things falling off.

“This is supposed to be the height of dress-making,” he continued.

He added that he found it “really problematic” that the brand was “putting marketing before a craft”.

Social media users were equally shocked, with one user writing that it was “unforgivable”, while another added: “It’s giving early seasons of Project Runway 😬.”

One of the couture garments on show at the Jean Paul Gaultier Fall/Winter couture Paris show on 6 July 2022 (Getty Images)

But other users questioned whether the safety pins were in fact part of the collection’s aesthetic.

“You really think Anna Wintour in the front row would’ve had nothing to say about unintentional safety pins?” posited one user, although others disagreed.

“No, he’s not wrong,” wrote another. “You could tell it wasn’t intentional on several pieces.”

Another commented: “Was that not a part of the collection though? The models have pincushions on their wrist. I believed it to be an element of the show, no?”

Rousteing paid tribute to 70-year-old fashion designer Gaultier earlier this week.

“The thing that I feel about Jean Paul is that he was ahead of his time,” he said.

“Today we talk about no boundaries, we talk about different shapes, we talk about inclusivity, diversity but Jean was the first to actually push for what we are fighting for today.”

The Independent has contacted Jean Paul Gaultier for further comment.