Duran Lantink Takes On Jean Paul Gaultier | PLUS Loewe, Givenchy and ALAÏA

0:04This is the Lueve fashion show that we're standing outside of. What's one personal style tip for dressing for Fashion Week? Comfortable shoes. I need to find Chloe and Nicole. Where's the entrance? There. On your right. Oh, there. No, no, no. We don't need it. What's your name? My name is Brian. Okay, but you're not just Brian. My name is Brian Boy. Yeah, thank you. I'm very, very excited for Jack and Lazarus' show. Americans in Paris. Can't wait. All right, the show just ended. Everyone's walking out. I see the girls. This is The Run Through. I'm Nicole Phelps. And I'm Chloe Mal. And this is day three of our Paris Fashion Week Shark Week.

0:53We're here outside the Louève show. Later, we're headed to Givenchy for Sarah Burton's sophomore collection. And I'm very excited to say we have an interview with Duran Lantink, the new designer at Jean-Paul Gaultier later in the show. But we are joined by Sally Singer. Hi, Sally. Hi, Sally. Hello. Hi. Sally has known Jack and Lazaro for how long? I've known Jack and Lazaro since they applied for the Echo de Monte Prize, which is probably 25 years ago for their first show in New York. Do you remember their first show? I do remember their first show, and I remember everything they've ever done.

1:28Yes, I do. And what I loved about the show today is there's a through line in their work that I saw in this show. that mix of sport, that funny ruffle, the proportions of those shorter jackets that were a bit Luzon-ish. What I really loved is that you saw them in these clothes, as well as a whole lot of leather, which I guess is the house of Lueve. Yes, they talked about the three pillars of Lueve at our preview yesterday. It has to look Spanish, it has to have a lot of craft, and it also has to look like Jack and Lazaro, as you say, Sally. It was really them, as well as being Loewe. This felt like leather 365 days a year for like weather for every, every situation.

2:08They were doing a lot of experiments with materials too. Like those towel dresses were actually 3D printed. Oh, wow. So they're not towels at all. They're like a... It's not Terry. No, not Terry. I will say I was absolutely delighted to see the use of pale yellows, beautiful oranges, actual sunny, summery colors in a spring-summer collection. We've seen a lot of heavy, dark, what season is it, clothes out there. And this was definitely a collection to wear at a resort, possibly when those leather dresses become something else for, you know, for the stores. At a resort, but also if it starts to monsoon while you're at the resort.

2:48I mean, this was really clothes for all weather, which I thought was very 2025. I thought the bags were a great shape. I love that boxy slouchy bag that opened the show and had they showed it in sort of crock effect and in electric blue. And then in the suede, I thought were beautiful. I thought that was a great bag. Big enough for your laptop, too. Yes, true. And there were some adorable clutches as well in all different types of configurations and colors. Again, like where to put the pop of color in an otherwise kind of sporty outfit. I thought it was really clever. And they got a really big round of applause, right?

3:25A standing ovation, I think you could call it. Tracee Ellis Ross, I saw, was the first to pop up clapping. She was very excited. And the photographer pit was snarling at us because people were so excited that they were blocking the view of the boys' bow because everyone was in the middle of the runway. I also thought the music was great. I thought just the energy. Pechanga Boys. I looked it up on Shazam. And it's funny because it's the second time I've Shazammed the Pechanga Boys this season. The soundtrack of Nicole's... I mean, there was so much anticipation around this. Would you say this was a successful debut?

3:59I would say that I think that the Europeans are not necessarily always the most welcoming to American Arivists, you know, with the exception of Marc Jacobs, maybe, back at Louis Vuitton. He got panned that first season. But they learned to love him. Came to Louis Vuitton, first season out, took the logo off, made everything white, and everyone killed him. It was the most brilliant collection ever. I mean, the ultimate stealth wealth collection. But it was way too stealth for the French. So there's always a habit of, you know, panning first and then rethinking later. But I think this show was so optimistic, not just in the feeling in the audience, but in the colors, the clothes, the ruffle, the shapes, the mininess of the dresses, you know, like all those.

4:42I think people are going to be happy with it, even if they say it's a lot of sportswear rethought. But that's cool. Why not? It felt modern and fresh. Thank you, Sally.

4:58Should we capture the rain sounds? This is Stephanie, producer on the show. We are here backstage. Yeah, it's pretty packed in here. We're in a room that has... So the room is railroad style, one end to the next. and the hype is real. Like, it just, you can sense everyone is running back and forth. We keep getting in the way. You can see how stressed everyone is. But Alex Kanzani is to our right, getting her makeup done, her hair done, and being hilarious, I assume.

5:34So right now we are leaving where the Givenchy show will take place In just a few hours, Nicole, Choma, and Chloe will be right there underneath that tent, seeing what Sarah Burton has for us next.

5:54I love Sarah Burton so much. I find the authenticity of her vision so endearing and lovely and also really works. You can see that she is not intimidated by the weight of the history of the House of Givenchy, that she takes from it what works, but also it's so her own eye and sensibility. And I thought it was such a ladylike, but fun. And it was ladylike, but not restrained. Exactly. And I always have an eye to the tailoring at Givenchy. I mean, she used to, it shows that she used to work on Savile Row because every suit jacket, every trouser, everything is just so precise and looks so effortless on all of the models.

6:40You do, as we talk about so many male creative directors and the lack of women at the heads of these large houses, you do feel a feminine sensibility from Givenchy and the way that the clothes feel like they are made with women in mind. Totally. I also think the women she brings together, British Vogue's latest cover star, Ray, was there. And it was so sweet because she sent me a little heart from across the room. And she had told me actually on the podcast how much she loved Sarah, how she'd asked Sarah to make special looks for her for Glastonbury. And there's a genuine connection. Sarah builds a community of women.

7:20Gwendolyn Christie was there. I think that and also the big kind of starry moment was Jenna Ortega, who is absolutely so tiny and petite. Teeny, teeny, tiny. And sitting next to Gwendolyn Christie, it was quite the contrast. And then you just see that, you know, just just the range of of women. And of course, Rooney, who's been. Rooney, who's been much more. A Givenchy girl for a long time. For a long time. And you never really see her out. I loved her look. That's very me. I mean, I love that little white dress. Yeah, she looks amazing. A micro mini white lace dress with the leather biker jacket and flat ballerinas.

7:54The new flats that we've been seeing everywhere that she grounded the entire show with almost.

8:04The sun has just come out over the Seine in Paris. It was pelting rain this morning as we pulled up to Aliyah. We're feeling much better. Choma, set the scene at Aliyah. It was at the former Fondation Cartier. They're actually opening their new foundation later this month. So lots of people are coming back for that. Anyway, so it is like a giant mirrored box. So you have mirrors on the ceiling, mirrors on the floor. So there's light coming from every direction. and the show opened with projected videos on the floor of their campaign faces, some of whom were in the show. And so as the models were walking out in kind of really beautiful color palette, it was quite unusual for Alaya because you expect just black and white and maybe some neutral tones.

9:00We've been seeing a lot of texture and fringe and lots of fringe skirts, tassels which seemed to be like gigantic tassels that you would find on curtains so that home that play of like working in interior textures and and um details was very much in it and then and close that move and make noise i also thought um there was video playing throughout the show so the light would change as the models would walk i thought that was interesting there was these kind of the new take on a onesie um which you know the arms were tucked in and i think when you saw the back. They were open with jeans. And the stirrup leggings.

9:36I very much enjoy. I'm going to enjoy seeing people out in the world wearing this. All right. We'll be back later. Bye, everybody.

9:54You come to the New Yorker Radio Hour for conversations that go deeper with people you really want to hear from. Whether it's Bruce Springsteen or Questlove or Olivia Rodrigo, Liz Cheney, or the godfather of artificial intelligence, Jeffrey Hinton, or some of my extraordinarily well-informed colleagues at The New Yorker. So join us every week on The New Yorker Radio Hour wherever you listen to podcasts.

10:22Duran Duran. Duran Duran. My favorite band. Really? Before you were born. Amazing. Yes. That's nice. Yes. Yes, from 1984 to 1986. Yeah. I dreamed about Duran Duran every night. Duran, welcome to the run through. Thank you for having me, Nicole. Thank you for being here. You are four days, five days away from your debut at Jean-Paul Gaultier. Yes, exciting. How do you feel at this moment? Well, it's very difficult to describe. I think I feel every minute another emotion. But at this point, I think I'm quite confident about what we have put together and what we have accomplished because it's also a start and it's a new beginning and there's a new team and there's a new ecosystem.

11:08And you kind of have to adapt and sort of try to create your language in quite a short time. So I think for what we're doing is the right direction or the right starting point of where I would like to go. Well, we can't wait. I think the first time I encountered you was during COVID, right? Or very shortly after COVID. And you made an incredible video shot outside of Amsterdam. Yes, it was in an abandoned castle of the royal family. You used drones? Yeah, we used drones. It was a very exciting, well, it wasn't really an exciting moment because it was COVID. but like it was a very good moment for me to kind of start entering the fashion world because it was a moment where nobody could go to shows so i figured out oh now i can actually do something because people don't have to be physically there so i started this idea of what if i would create a show in an abandoned castle with drones and then you would have a whole front row with drone bots that are pretending to be celebrities and journalists.

12:20So we had all these drones seated front row. And then we had other drones filming the models in the abandoned castle. So it was really, I think it was a very fun project to do. For me, what really stands out, first of all, the ingenuity of it, but also the clothes themselves, which were very cool. It was a lot of upcycled pieces and some of them from familiar brands, right mashed together in your unique style yes i think it was it was also a moment because before covid i started collaborating with browns and with different multi-brand stores where they would give me their dad's stock and i started recreating new items because i thought it was so sad that things end up in the landfill and you know there's being put quite a lot of energy in these design pieces so i was thinking okay how can i kind of transform that and put it back into the store.

13:12But what happened was during COVID, people kind of backed out in giving me that stock. So I had like loads of that stock in my studio. And it's like, this is the moment that I'm just going to repurpose everything that I still have. And that's how that collection sort of came together. It really, it really sticks out in my memory. And when was your first show in Paris? Oh my gosh. When was my first show? I don't know. March, March, 2023. March 23. And you caught the eye of people right away. And it wasn't necessarily with a lot of upcycling and mashing up. You had, you sort of quickly pivoted to this other idea.

13:55You were working a lot with volume and these exaggerated shapes. How did you land on that kind of an idea? Well, I think meshing up that stalk and closing pieces was always quite important for me. I've been doing that for a very long time during my studies, actually before my studies as well. And somehow I started seeing it a bit more and I was like, okay, I kind of need to reinvent myself or I need to find another way of making design interesting for me again. So I started thinking about what if we don't mesh it up, but what if we change the form of the closing piece? So you have a t-shirt, but what if you make a ball t-shirt or you've changed the form of a denim jacket and quite like normal closing pieces, like a denim jacket, a trench coat, a jeans, but just change the form of it.

14:46And that started making me excited again. So that's how that came about. It made fashion very excited too. I remember coming home from that season and all of the stylists were talking about you. Ah, that's nice. Yes. And you said that Jean-Paul Gaultier has cultural relevance. What are some of your first memories? You're living in Amsterdam? No, in The Hague, actually. In The Hague. Yeah. So my first memories from Jean-Paul Gaultier was, I think I was 12 years old, and I got this beanie with devil horns from a friend of my parents for my birthday. And I couldn't stop wearing it. It was like my favorite item in the whole world.

15:25and there's another moment where I went to high school it was my first it was my first day of camp for the like for the high school kind of situation so you go to the high school and it was quite a conservative high school and I came there with a mesh top and ganache on it with my nipples out and it was a champogote shirt and so there's like loads of memories of having a goche item and kind of really feel that you're standing for something or that you create your own identity of it. And I think that's so important if you can have a closing piece and that makes you feel empowered somehow. And I think he did that with me.

16:09What would you say beyond that sense of, you know, this individuality and sort of helping you find your individuality maybe? What do you think of now as you are creative directing the house? What are the codes that you want people to understand about Jean-Paul Gaultier? Well, I think the most important thing that I'm doing is I'm playing with the codes. And I think Jean-Paul Gaultier was also always playing with codes. So for me, I work very intuitively and I'm imagining somehow what a Jean-Paul Gaultier world is. and not really really dig deep into it yet like i find it more important to kind of imagine a world where champogaut is sort of super relevant for me and that's how i'm trying to create a collection or kind of create the story so they're not necessary i'm not going to say i'm going to work with mariniere stripes or mesh things i'm just like i'm really trying to catch the energy of it and I think there was such a for me for instance Jean-Paul Gaultier Jr.

17:15is such a relevant label and it was very much about youth about now about uh it's it's it's very urgent in a way you find it in nightlife but you find it in the street it became very much something that went beyond a fashion show. Beyond the runway. Yeah, beyond the runway. It became very much part of street culture. And I really like that about it. I mean, it's interesting what you're saying because up until now, or in the recent past, let's say, since COVID, there have been a group of designers who have each reinterpreted Jean-Paul Gaultier on the couture runways. And they have definitely, I think, almost all of them, taken a very sort of high fashion couture approach.

18:08But it sounds like what you want to do is not that. No, it's interesting because now that I'm working for a brand, which is a bigger house and there's more opportunities, I feel like you can create a world, but you can start with a fashion show that is, I would say, fashion. So it's less like, for instance, I'm not going to show jeans or I'm not going to show a t-shirt on the catwalk. What about logos? I'm doing logos for sure. I'm doing junior logos. Junior for me just is a very exciting starting point. But I can imagine that you do a fashion show and then afterwards you start sort of creating a world around it, which is not necessarily with models or fashion.

18:52So I think it's also a bit more of a longer journey to create something. But the fashion show is going to be, I think, fashion. Or what I think is fashion. So tell me about your process. You accepted the job. And what's the first thing you did when you got here? Fitting. Very quick. Yeah, the first thing. Well, I mean, I introduced myself to the whole team and I shaked about 500 hands. But no, we started directly doing fittings because that's the thing I like most, to play around three-dimensionally. I'm not necessarily really much a mood board, person. So I just like to walk around, find things, try things on, twist it, cut in it and kind of see if there's coming something that is like worth studying.

19:46So I think that's the first thing that I did. And was that like sort of starting from scratch or were you looking at the archives? I don't even know what Jean-Paul Gaultier's archives are like, although I presume they must be good if we have all of these designers in the last five years doing yes very archival references yes no so i've decided for now to approach it a bit like the charlie and the chocolate factory so basically i'm not entering the archive i'm keeping it closed for now even though i really want to go in because it's like it's probably going to be fucking amazing and then, oh, can I say fucking?

20:24I don't know. And I want to go in, but I kind of first want to imagine what's behind that door and create that fantasy world in a way. And that's more my approach for now. So apparently there is a really insane good archive, but I'm not letting myself in yet. Wow, that feels really ambitious to me and like a very bold choice. Yes, I'm probably going to be slaughtered by it, but I don't care. I think it is a bold choice, but I think it's also good because I want this to be kind of, well, no, not kind of. I want this to be a fresh start. So I'm a little bit scared if I go into the Argive. I get too inspired and it becomes too much like a kind of literal copy.

21:15And now that I don't have access to it, I know in the back of my head, what Jean-Paul Gaultier is, but I'm more free to kind of twist it.

21:28Hi, I'm Rebecca Ford, senior awards correspondent at Vanity Fair and co-host of Little Gold Men. Oscar season is upon us. Little Gold Men takes you behind the scenes of the race for the biggest prize in Hollywood. There's a hundred wrestlers in the room, but only one can be Oscar nominated. Whether you're a movie lover or an industry buff, Little Gold Men from Vanity Fair has everything you need to know about this year's Oscar race. Follow and listen to Little Gold Men wherever you get your podcasts.

22:04Something that you said to my colleague, Luke Leach, you said, I think now more than ever, it's important to be a bit more radical because if we're not being radical, then what are we doing? Why is that your philosophy? it's always been my philosophy i guess but no i think it's it's very important to be radical i don't even know if it is radical you know what i mean like i just feel that somehow we're living in a in a world where it becomes more and more dangerous to kind of do things that feel free for you. Like for instance, there is, I was doing research somewhere and you know you get arrested if a person walks naked in the street.

22:53So basically you're not allowed to walk naked, which is kind of like a weird idea to me. Like why are we people? You know what I mean? We're all naked underneath our clothes. We're all naked. Like what's the deal? So, I mean, maybe that's a really weird example actually, but I feel like we're slowly sort of drifting to this very conservative world where there's like, I don't know, I just don't want to be part of a conservative society, I guess. I don't want to be part of a conservative society. And that's why Jean-Paul Gaultier is so good for me, because I feel like it's very unconventional. And it has this sort of this freedom and you are not scared to take risks that other people might think is weird.

23:41And I think I've always been like that. I've always like as a child as well, I always hated it when people got bullied because they were different, you know what I mean? And that's something I just, I can't accept. I just can't. So that's why people might find it radical, but I think it's just a good way, a good way of living in a good, I don't know. I agree. It is a good way to live. Down with bullies. So Jean-Paul Gaultier himself said that you are the new enfant terrible of fashion. And I want to know if you've met Gaultier yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I met Mr. Gauthier. I think we were having a couple, we had, I don't know, I see him, probably I see him once in the two months or something, once a month.

24:33And then we have lunch with his husband and it's very nice and he's super kind. And I think it's a great relationship because we don't necessarily talk about fashion. We more talk about film or music or just fun things in a way. So, I mean, we had a conversation about Pierre Gardin and those kind of things. But it's very nice. He's very, he's just a very kind person. And I like that. And ebullient too, right? It feels like Jean-Paul Gaultier is always up. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The energy is really great. It's a very great energy. So I'm very fortunate and happy that I can spend time with him from time to time.

25:18Yes. Well, you brought up movies and music and so that made me curious. Have you seen anything good or listened to anything good lately? I listen a lot to John Giorno at the moment. I somehow tapped into John Giorno by accident. I think I was listening to something from William S. Barrows, the Dialogue poem. and then I started researching what Daiole Poem was and then I came to John Giorno and John Giorno has this amazing spoken word poetry where he does this cut-up techniques and I got completely addicted to it I've been listening to it like weekends and weekends just when I was working it's just like John Giorno's voice in my head constantly and it made me feel very calm which is quite weird because if you listen to it it's pretty intense but somehow it just made me feel very meditative so that's what I'm listening to at the moment in terms of films and series I haven't really been able to concentrate I like I like watching series but since I've been moving to Paris I just don't have the I don't have the the concentration for it like I try and then after five minutes I'm like oh I need to do something else well you say you are you know quite busy and uh it's hard to focus on things outside of work but I'm curious uh this is a season of many debuts and if you are paying attention at all to your fellow debuting designers yeah yeah no for sure I look I look at Vogue Runway I have to I'm subscribed So no, no, no, no, I do look.

26:56It's great. It's great to see what the other designers do. I mean, I really like fashion, so that will never change. So always look to see what other people do. Do you feel like a sense of camaraderie? There's so many of you making debuts this season. Do you think it's easier to be doing your first collection for a new house this season than it might be in a different season? I haven't really I don't I don't think I've really thought about it in that way um I just always like I kind of always try to just focus on what I need to do and I'm I'm also a person that like downsizes quite a lot of things so what I'm doing is I'm I just basically think day by day and I'm like not trying to zoom out and kind of be part of a of a spectacle I'm just like okay I'm here I just need to do this I want to make a certain type of collection and that's just my main goal and focus and I would I think if I would if I would zoom out and like go into more perspective of what's happening I would probably get quite nervous so I try to kind of avoid that that energy or that emotion in a way but I'm just excited and I'm excited to do my first show for Shampoo Gauthier.

28:20I mean, it's a really legendary house. So it's, yeah, scary somehow. Let's backtrack a little bit. Last season, you had this viral sort of moment, right? And it was a very cool show, But it began and ended with these latex sort of torsos and you swapped sexes, I guess you could say. And I wonder if you anticipated the way the internet woke up when you did that. I like that the internet woke up. First of all, it was really much about like playing with forms and sort of shaping and cosplay and animal prints and checks. and bad taste and good taste and everything kind of together. And I think there were loads of comments always of my clothes that I was trying to form the body, but it was never really my intention to form the body.