Jean Paul Gaultier: ‘I love the eccentricity and the freedom of England’
15.05.2022 - 18:01
/ msn.com
Eurotrash, with Antoine de Caunes. The French designer recently turned 70, and his wild, eventful life will be celebrated in a song-and-dance cabaret, Fashion Freak Show, at the Roundhouse in London this summer. Have you always had a strong connection with the UK?Yes! The first time I came to England, to London, it was like somewhere very close to Paris, but completely different.
The people, the architecture, the weather, the spirit. It was beginning of the 1970s, so I saw Tommy the movie, The Rocky Horror Show, the punks. For me, it was something incredible; nobody else but the English could do something like that.
I love the eccentricity and the freedom. Whereas in France we are a little bourgeois: there’s no sense of humour, no sense of self-criticism. You have always to be so nice and so elegant.
Truly, I hate that, and I love that in England there is a contrast: fantasy is completely accepted. Was there anything about the UK you didn’t like?At the beginning, the food was not good. Now it’s very good – it has been for many years – but before it was only Indian and Chinese restaurants where it was OK.
The rest was absolutely disgusting. But it changed, everything changed, so now you have the perfect 12 points to England. No, that is wrong that they didn’t give you any points for Eurovision.
‘I remember the first time I saw Madonna singing Holiday on Top of the Pops… I was surprised an American could dress like that’You’re a big Eurovision fan. Why have the UK done so badly in recent years?It’s sad but it’s politics. Because OK, the 2021 song [James Newman’s Embers] was not one of the greatest, but it was not that bad.