Five years after designer Jean Paul Gaultier announced his retirement from fashion, the French Maison has finally tapped a permanent creative director to succeed him. On Tuesday, the brand appointed emerging designer Duran Lantink into the esteemed role, effective immediately. 

“I consider Jean Paul Gaultier 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 said in a press statement. “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.”

Since 2020, Jean Paul Gaultier has adopted a rotating guest designer model, welcoming a different designer each year to create a one-off haute couture collection for the brand. These collaborators included Simone Rocha, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing and Haider Ackermann. Lantink’s appointment officially ends this guest couturier concept, as he will oversee both couture and ready-to-wear.

“I see in him 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 (the designer) said in a statement.

Lantink may be considered young in the industry, but he comes with a certain amount of buzz and notoriety: The Dutch designer founded his eponymous label in 2016 and won the Andam Special Prize in 2023 and the LVMH Prize’s Karl Lagerfeld Award in 2024. Earlier this month, he was awarded the 2025 Woolmark Prize, presented by Donatella Versace and IB Kamara. There is no news on what Lantink’s appointment means for his namesake label. 

Lantink’s first ready-to-wear collection for Jean Paul Gaultier will take place during Paris Fashion Week in September 2025, while his debut couture collection will be in January 2026.

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