Duran Lantink's Debut Jean Paul Gaultier SS26 Collection Bares It All
Titled “Junior,” JPG receives the “Duranification” treatment in its new era.
Summary
- Duran Lantink’s debut collection for Jean Paul Gaultier, named “Junior,” revives the house’s youthful, energetic 1980s club line
- The collection twists classic Gaultier codes like the Marinière stripe and tattoo-on-mesh through disruptive volumes and optical illusions
- Lantink was inspired by Amsterdam’s RoXY club and the works of poet John Giorno, celebrating fashion as freedom and a new creative starting point
Duran Lantink has unveiled his highly anticipated debut collection for Jean Paul Gaultier‘s Ready-to-Wear Spring/Summer 2026, titled “Junior.” The name pays direct homage to the cult 1988–1994 Gaultier line, channeling a raw, club-soaked energy and a vision of fashion as pure freedom.
Lantink grounds the collection in his deep-seated understanding of Gaultier’s legacy: fun, energetic, and urgent. Through his signature “Duranification” process, archival concepts are twisted and reinvented. Classic elements, like the Marinière stripe, are reimagined as disorienting optical illusions, while the iconic tattoo-on-mesh is dramatically inflated into 3D forms. The collection engages in “dysmorphic play,” with exaggerated, vanishing volumes and anatomical trompe l’oeil prints, all set within an unmistakable Gaultier palette of burgundy, mustard, and sky blue.
The designer cites the spirit of Amsterdam’s legendary RoXY club as his primary inspiration—a hub of anarchy and hedonism that defined an era of careless style. Additionally, the show’s meditative soundtrack featured the hypnotic recordings of late American poet and activist John Giorno.
Presented in the basement of the Musée du Quai Branly, the “Junior” collection is both a vivid resurrection of Gaultier’s ready-to-wear and a bold extension of Lantink’s disruptive, volume-driven aesthetic. It is a powerful new heartbeat for the house that Jean Paul Gaultier himself signs off on, giving Lantink his flowers post-show, in a moment captured by StyleNotCom. Nothing about the collection was safe in the best way possible, with Lantink’s original ideals combined with JPG’s riské themes over the years breathing new life into the brand.
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