Up to this collaboration with Roche Bobois

Some beings are difficult to follow both their work bulimia leads them to increase the activities. And leaves babas exhaustion and admiration, public and collaborators. Jean Paul Gaultier is such: man and woman, haute couture under his own label ready-to-wear collections, Hermès women's collection (he signed his last for the SADDLER orange mailboxes this fall)... and furniture for Roche Bobois. An extension of its territory of expression No doubt. And it's in the air of the time. Never in effect, the association between design and couture was also flourishing. In this case, it is however not the emergence of a mark, as Armani Casa, Fendi Casa or Ralph Lauren Home. Not question nor give rise to a Department at the heart of the fashion house - as with the design activity of Maison Martin Margiela. It is on the register of collaboration - as undertaken by Tomas Maier to Bottega Veneta with Poltrona Frau.

A work in any case as Jean Paul Gaultier described as consistent with its activity of couturier. "The creative process is still very close," he said at the unveiling of this project. And to emphasize the close relationships that fashion has always maintained with architecture - "the niche of the castles were cut in the small medieval capulets grounds" - and therefore with the framework of life... It is therefore with a continuum of its activity. Not a break, or a new marotte. Indeed, in is not in the test run. In 1992, at the request of VIA (enhancement of innovation in furnishing), it creates a few parts that fans snapped up then. And then nothing. Up to this collaboration with Roche Bobois. It was precisely born of envy of reissue the first designs of the creator. They are still in the air of time, the Chair Ben Hur and the evil mirror. The secret of beautiful mature These moving parts - they are mounted on wheels - are the aesthetic translation function, and their use. Strict sense therefore, pure design objects. When Jean Paul Gaultier designs lifestyle pushes the travel constantly. Her creations reflect his own nomadic, Word, if it is, in fashion in the world of decoration where the boundaries between parts and exterior/interior spaces is abolished. The idea did not take a ride and Jean Paul Gaultier has, therefore, little tweaked these parts. But it does not stop there: he created a collection for the fiftieth anniversary of the editor of furniture. Exposed to the city of architecture in the suite it decoration at the Palais de Chaillot, also at the Galeries Lafayette and then marketed this collection deploys themes and reasons of choice for Jean Paul Gaultier: of trompe l'oeil and the corseté, the tattoo and the marinade, the pompon stripe and lace, transparency and the flower. All of this is found in bed, carpet, Cabinet-front, cushions and Roche Bobois headlights parts recustomisées by the creator as the Mah Jong, armchair designed in the 1970s by the German designer Hans Hopfer legend sofa. The secret of youth of this furniture His full modularity, with foundations of different forms and therefore interpretable by everyone... An asset in the air of the time (see our article "new forms, new features"). This piece could not, in its longevity and its adaptability, that entice Jean Paul Gaultier. Fashion designer likes to say that he wishes to, mode, as elsewhere, to create "a timeless" pieces "In addition with the mood of the time, but still taking conventional databases." I love the tradition and I love twister tradition. "Mah Jong is a perfect example", he added at the press conference of presentation. This notion of timelessness presage a future with Roche Bobois It is by a spin: "love cycles are 3, 7 and 13 years...". "Hopefully by Cupid.

PHOTOS: D.R.; THOMAS DHELLEMMES.