If you’re a hardcore fashion enthusiast, you know few designers hold a candle to the eccentric, unconventional, and imaginative poise of Jean Paul Gaultier. Throughout the brand’s 42-year history, it’s stayed true to its newfangled nature, making cone bras, pubic hair, and gender-bending attire mainstream along the way. But it seems the atelier just met its match. On April 15 — five years after the French designer left his post and launched a rotating designer model — Gaultier announced his permanent successor: Duran Lantink. Ending the label’s “collaborative era” with Glenn Martens, Olivier Rousteing, Haider Ackermann, Simone Rocha, and Ludovic de Saint Sernin (to name a few), the Dutch creative will lead both couture and ready-to-wear, effective immediately.

Just over a month after Lantink presented his eponymous brand’s Fall/Winter 2025 collection, news broke that he’s headed to Jean Paul Gaultier. “I see in [Lantink] the energy, audacity, and playful spirit through fashion that I had at the beginning of my own journey: the new ‘enfant terrible’ of fashion,” Gaultier shared in an official statement, in reference to his own nickname from the ‘80s. “I consider Jean Paul Gaultier as a genius and part of a generation that kicked down doors, so people like us can walk through them freely and be who we are without apology,” Lantink wrote in a press release. “Stepping into the role of creative director is a true honor. To me, Gaultier represents the ultimate house of creative spirit and ‘savoir faire’. It’s provocative, and continuously pushing boundaries. It’s the brand that brings together different disciplines around fashion to create cultural movements, changing the language of clothes and how we wear them in the streets.”

The burgeoning artist comes to JPG from his self-named womenswear, menswear and genderless label, which launched in 2016. In 2017, he graduated from the Sandberg Institute, which is where he discovered his penchant for experimental and progressive design. During his studies, Lantink also gained an appreciation for sustainability through up-cycling clothes and accessories — another similarity between him and Gaultier. Most recently, his F/W ‘25 show felt right up the French legend’s alley, thanks to the avant-garde silhouettes, the clashing patterns, and the various unexpected accents. A few conversation-starters include the butt-cutout jeans, the cartoon-ishly oversized headpieces, and the closing look: a male model wearing a women’s breast plate.

All this to say? You can expect Lantink to uphold Gaultier’s signature aesthetic — and perhaps take his risqué essence a step further. During his tenure at Jean Paul Gaultier, Lantink will pause his eponymous ready-to-wear and couture collections in order to focus on his new role. According to the French label, his first RTW collection will be presented at Paris Fashion Week in September with the Spring/Summer 2026 shows. Then, in January 2026, he’ll debut his inaugural Haute-Couture collection. In true fashion month form, September will be here before you know it. In the meantime, stay tuned to TZR for updates ahead of his S/S ‘26 show.