March 27, 2023 |
Julien Dossena has a pretty big year ahead of him. Not only is the designer celebrating a decade spent at the helm of Paco Rabanne, but Dossena will be guest designing Jean Paul Gaultier’s next haute couture collection.
Following in the footsteps of Sacai’s Chitose Abe, Glenn Martens of Diesel and Y/Project fame, Balmain’s own Olivier Rousteing and tastemaker Haider Ackermann, Dosenna is the fifth designer to design a one-off couture collection for the French brand, following Gaultier’s retirement in 2020.
Speaking with WWD, Dossena – who wore Gaultier through his youth as an avid clubber – hinted that the collection, unveiled in July, will look to early Gaultier collections, which were held inside the intimate Galerie Vivienne.
“Gaultier has a really strong style — you can tell right away when it’s a Gaultier,” he told the publication. “And at the same time, there’s that never-ending research and curiosity on different themes or techniques — it could be historic or super modern and technological; it could be pop or noble with an amazing cut.”
Since joining Paco Rabanne in 2013, Dossena has revived the house’s space-age fantasia through a contemporary lens. His latest collection, revealed in March, was a tribute to the brand’s founder who passed away in February – bookended by a parade of archive assemblage dresses that jangled like tambourines as they sauntered by.
“Julien has a particular sense of reinterpretation, and I’m curious to see how he will play with my codes,” Gaultier said to WWD.
Photography: Paco Rabanne AW23 by Christina Fragkou.
