Shudder fashionistas, Duran Lantink has just been crowned Jean Paul Gaultier’s new creative director. Yes, Lantink, the king of improbable cuts and recycled looks with the swag of an eco-fashion designer. And guess what? He’s become the very first official successor to Jean Paul himself. It’s a bit as if Gaultier had handed him the keys to the family dressing room and said: “Go on, son, have fun!

He will make his debut in September at Paris Fashion Week, where he will resurrect JPG’s ready-to-wear collection, which has been missing for over ten years (some of the dresses were probably sleeping in fashion cryogenics). Haute couture, on the other hand, will have to wait until January 2026. In the meantime, we’re burying the “collab à gogo” phase of the house: no more guest DJs on the catwalks, now it’s Duran who plays the fabric solo.

He’s not coming empty-handed: fresh from winning the Woolmark Prize, he’s already shaken up the fashion world with his crazy silhouettes. Gaultier himself describes him as having ‘the energy, audacity and desire to have fun with clothes’. In other words, he has all the makings of the new “enfant terrible”… except perhaps Madonna’s conical breasts. But hey, let’s give him time.