crazy cat ladies

We Hope Jean Paul Gaultier Isn’t Joking About His ‘Cats and Corsets’ Collection

Jean Paul Gaultier has tried the Hollywood-starlet thing. He’s been designing since the mid-seventies and has been around the block with the lot of them. But you know what? They’re a little high-maintenance these days. He tells the Telegraph:


’When I first started out Hollywood stars came and tried on the dresses and had many fittings. Now they expect the dresses for free. I hear some designers even pay them to wear their clothes. It is ’opeless.’

But these fussy starlets forget that humans are not the only beautiful species designers can dress. Humans are far from the hottest current species. Though the popularity of gorillas may be on the rise after Jersey Shore, cats are surely the species on every fashion designer’s brain right now. Miu Miu, United Bamboo, and Azzaro have demonstrated an affinity for the furry creatures. As it turns out, Jean Paul Gaultier is a bit of a crazy cat lady man himself. While the Telegraph was having lunch with Gaultier in his studio, and assistants were tapping their watches trying to steal him away and wrap it up, he stayed and chatted on blithely about cat couture:

Monsieur Gaultier’s time is obviously of the essence and yet he is happily chatting away, telling me how he designed a corset for his cat. (It’s always about corsets with him, it seems.) ‘Do you know,’ he says, ‘that cats can’t wear corsets?’ He giggles a little. ‘Do you ’ave a cat?’

I tell him I do.

’Have you ever tied something round his middle?’

I tell him I haven’t.

’They can’t stand!’ he says. ‘Not at all! They just fall over.

I know because I tried!’

His cat must be the comatose overweight type that lazes about on velvet cushions all day, getting bloated off of wet food, only swatting at a catnip-dipped feather so his owners don’t think he’s fat and lazy and take the Fancy Feast away. Cats aren’t like dogs — most of them don’t just let you dress them up and then take it lying down. Though the cat couldn’t walk in the corset, Gaultier doesn’t mind. When asked if he sees Madonna, he replied:

’Yes, I see ’er,’ he says, shrugging his shoulders. ‘I went to ’er wedding but I see more of Kylie. I love Kylie.’ He waggles his eyebrows up and down.

’Does Kylie have a cat?’ I ask.

To give him his due, he almost falls apart laughing.

’I don’t know,’ he says, breathlessly, ‘but it’s my new collection! Cats and corsets!’

The Telegraph thinks he’s kidding, but God, we hope not.

Jean Paul Gaultier: Classic french cheek [Telegraph UK]

We Hope Jean Paul Gaultier Isn’t Joking About His ‘Cats and Corsets’ Collection