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Kendall Jenner’s turn at Vogue World 2024: Paris had a Lady Godiva quality to it. If the model entered Place Vendôme on a Spanish thoroughbred named Django while dressed in Hermès jodhpurs, she exited, if not quite nude, then very much in a naked dress. For the evening’s grand finale, the 28-year-old traded her britches for couture–specifically, Look 35 from Simone Rocha’s collaboration with Jean Paul Gaultier, an ethereal, whimsical collection whose inspirations ranged from 1986’s Le Défilé to Countess Ellen Olenska in The Age of Innocence.
The Irish designer’s tribute to the enfant terrible’s iconography is the centerpiece in a fashion triptych, with the couture presentation representing “The Wedding” to her spring 2024 collection’s “Dress Rehearsal” and fall 2024’s “Wake,” hence the romantic, bridal inflection to her creations. “The narrative [for the Jean Paul Gaultier takeover] was taking the ideas of the technique of haute couture, and very much looking at Mr Gaultier’s spirit–and bringing that to the table through the guise of myself,” Rocha told Vogue during a preview. “So it was harnessing the femininity, the sexuality, the sensuality… There’s a playful provocativeness about Gaultier I really wanted to bring in.” In the case of Jenner’s look for the Vogue World finale, that meant classic JPG corsetry paired with Wharton-esque gloves and a cascade of tulle embellished with Simone Rocha crystals.
Jenner wasn’t the only Vogue World attendee to wear Simone Rocha X Jean Paul Gaultier on Sunday night. The emcee for the evening, Cara Delevingne, hosted the livestream in Look 15 from the collection: one of Rocha’s riffs on the conical bras forever associated with Gaultier’s costumes for Madonna’s Blond Ambition tour. Sharpening the tips of the bra to be “like rose thorns” (a nod to the stems that JPG is known to distribute to models backstage), Simone echoed their pointedness in matching satin ballet slippers, as seen on Delevingne.
Of course, the enfant terrible himself also made a cameo on Place Vendôme to dress Aya Nakamura for her opening number yesterday. The chanteuse’s dress is, in fact, a combination of two of his previous designs: the skintight looks in the tableau that closed his final couture show at the Théâtre du Châtelet in 2020, and the corsets that peppered his spring 2012 tribute to Amy Winehouse. “It shows off [Aya’s] beautiful hips and gorgeous body,” Gaultier told Vogue of the custom creation before Vogue World commenced. “The look is like a patchwork of collections. It reminds me of the time when I used to go to the flea market and transform clothes or Samaritaine to buy hosiery, which inspired me in my career. I love the idea of taking a dress and giving it a new life…It is an honor to participate in this event by creating a dress for [Aya]. She represents a very beautiful vision of France.” As did Vogue World 2024: Paris as a whole.