The Bite Magazine Issue 17

Y ou can always recognise a Jean Paul Gaultier fragrance, whether it’s a Le Male or Classique bottle, by the Breton stripes over a toned male physique or a corset-clad figure of a woman. Whenever you hear the sound of an opera song such as ‘Casta Diva’ that accompanies most of his adverts, you wait in anticipation to discover the storyline of the perfume or cologne. It could be the semi-naked sailor arising from the bed who briefly looks at his lover before he gets dressed and walks out the door, while she awakens to see him going and then takes in the scent of his cologne from the pillow; or the blonde-haired sailor walking through a bar who gets a few stares from his fellow sailors as he makes his way to the room at the end where another sailor is on a green couch sleeping. He leans in and kisses the sailor who then opens his eyes and smiles before the blonde sailor reveals she is actually a woman in a pink corset. The latest campaign for Le Male and Classique fragrances called ‘Welcome to the Factory’ gives you an insight into how these scents are created. In the video, a mechanical door bearing the brand’s logo opens to reveal a line of pink corset-clad models, led by Daphne Groeneveld, standing on a conveyor belt which glides along the upper level of the factory. We then see the sailors tugging on ropes to manually tighten the cords on a giant bustier while one of them gazes up at Groeneveld and locks eyes with her. With the sailors rowing boats on spokes attached to the central hub and the models walking on them, there is a lot of flirting going on between the two parties as they work together to bite designerprofile From labelled the ‘enfant terrible’ to today the ‘King of Parisian Couture’, Jada Brookes discovers how a once lonely boy became one of the world’s renowned fashion pioneers.