In an era where fashion and pop culture are more entwined than ever, a single campaign can ignite global conversations and redefine creative boundaries. Jean Paul Gaultier’s Pre-Fall 2025 campaign, starring BLACKPINK’s Jennie, does precisely that—a seismic collaboration that signals not just a new muse, but a revival of an iconic French house’s daring spirit.
A Meeting of Icons: Why Jennie and Jean Paul Gaultier Matter Now
At its core, this campaign is more than a high-profile partnership. It’s a cultural moment. Jennie, the K-pop phenomenon who commands a legion of fans worldwide, is no stranger to the fashion spotlight. Yet her appointment as the central figure in Jean Paul Gaultier’s Pre-Fall 2025 campaign plants a definitive flag: the worlds of high fashion and global pop are no longer parallel—they are convergent, intertwined, and inseparable.
Jean Paul Gaultier, a name synonymous with audacious couture and avant-garde codes, has long championed individuality and theatricality. By enlisting Jennie, the brand is not simply courting her immense star power. It’s making a statement about identity, self-expression, and the evolving definition of the modern muse. As Gaultier himself put it, Jennie is “the ultimate Gaultier muse”—a modern-day showgirl who embodies boldness, sensuality, and fearless reinvention.
Behind the Lens: The Visionaries Crafting a Dream
Fashion campaigns of this magnitude are collective acts of artistry. The creative minds shaping this narrative—photographer Max Siedentopf and stylists Minhee Park and Leopold Duchemin—bring a distinctly theatrical sensibility to the project. Their vision is not merely to dress Jennie but to stage her as a living conduit for the house’s historic codes, reimagined for a new era.
- Max Siedentopf: Renowned for his surreal, boundary-pushing imagery, Siedentopf’s lens transforms the campaign into a dreamscape—a stage where fantasy and reality are fluid.
- Minhee Park & Leopold Duchemin: These stylists interpret Gaultier’s signature elements—corsetry, sharply tailored silhouettes, and trompe-l’œil illusions—through a contemporary, boundary-less lens.
The result is a series of tableaux vivants, each more striking than the last, where Jennie shifts seamlessly between elemental archetypes—earth, air, fire, and water—each look a masterclass in symbolic storytelling.
The Four Elements: Fashion as Alchemy and Performance
Few campaigns dare to move beyond mere aesthetics. Jean Paul Gaultier’s Pre-Fall 2025 collection, as embodied by Jennie, does just that. The creative conceit is elemental: each look is inspired by one of the four classical elements, transforming Jennie into a modern mythic figure—a showgirl who is at once grounded, mercurial, incendiary, and ethereal.
- Earth: Groundedness is rendered in dark indigo denim—a nod to both Gaultier’s love of utilitarian chic and Jennie’s own streetwise sensibility.
- Air: Weightlessness and lift are captured in sheer, baroque-print bodysuits, emblazoned with the bold “GAULTIER” insignia—a visual echo of the maison’s fearless self-branding.
- Fire: Fiery energy comes alive in blood-red, sequined ensembles—pieces that shimmer with heat, celebrating both the physicality and the passion inherent in performance.
- Water: Fluidity is expressed through silhouettes and fabrications that flow, ripple, and seduce, inviting the viewer to surrender to the senses.
What unites these looks is their celebration of sensation—the weight of denim, the shimmer of sequins, the slick coolness of sheer fabrics. Each is a tactile invitation to “feel, live in, and celebrate” the piece, as the campaign’s press release so evocatively puts it.
Jennie as the Ultimate Showgirl: Identity, Boldness, and Creative Rebirth
Jennie’s transformation for Jean Paul Gaultier is more than surface-deep. As she herself notes, “This campaign felt like stepping into a dream. Every look had its own energy—fluid, fiery, grounded, or light—and I loved expressing all those sides of myself through Gaultier’s incredible designs. Jean Paul Gaultier has always inspired me to be bold, and this was truly a celebration of that.”
Her words resonate as an ode to self-discovery and performance. In Gaultier’s world, clothing is not armor but a means of revelation. The “Ultimate Showgirl” is not a caricature of femininity, but a celebration of multiplicity, strength, and sensuality. Jennie’s ability to channel each element, to oscillate between grounded power and ethereal grace, positions her as the perfect muse for a house that has always championed the complexity of womanhood.
Performance and Identity: Blurring Fantasy and Reality
The campaign’s genius lies in its ability to blur the lines between fantasy and reality. By staging Jennie in surreal, performative vignettes, Siedentopf and the styling team invite viewers to suspend disbelief and inhabit a world where identity is fluid, performative, and ever-changing.
Jean Paul Gaultier’s legacy has always thrived on the theatrical—on the runway as stage, the model as actor, the garment as costume and second skin. In this campaign, those traditions are amplified for a new generation. Jennie’s fearless persona and iconic style become the connective tissue between Gaultier’s heritage and its future: a vision of fashion as both art and lived experience.
Beyond the Campaign: A Defining Moment for Jean Paul Gaultier
This campaign is not just an artistic statement—it is a strategic one. Jean Paul Gaultier’s partnership with Jennie coincides with a pivotal moment for the house. After years away from the ready-to-wear market, the maison is staging a grand return, now under the creative stewardship of Duran Lantink. Lantink’s appointment signals a fresh chapter, one that is committed to both honoring the brand’s storied codes and pushing them into uncharted territory.
The timing could not be more opportune. By aligning with Jennie—a figure whose influence spans continents, industries, and demographics—Jean Paul Gaultier is reasserting its relevance in a crowded, rapidly evolving fashion landscape. This campaign, then, is more than a showcase of garments; it is a declaration of intent, a rebirth that places performance, spectacle, and identity at the heart of the house’s new vision.
The Power of Collaboration: Fashion’s New Language
The Jean Paul Gaultier x Jennie partnership exemplifies a crucial truth of contemporary fashion: collaboration is the new creative currency. In an industry where attention is the most precious commodity, the convergence of a K-pop superstar and a legendary French maison is not just strategic—it’s transformative.
For Jennie, the collaboration cements her status as more than a pop icon. She is now a bona fide fashion muse, an artist whose influence shapes not just trends but narratives. For Jean Paul Gaultier, it marks a revival—an embrace of the global, the theatrical, and the unapologetically bold.
Looking Ahead: The Enduring Impact of the Ultimate Showgirl
As the campaign’s images circulate and the fashion world takes note, one thing is clear: this is not a fleeting moment but a harbinger of things to come. The fusion of Gaultier’s artistry and Jennie’s charisma has created a blueprint for the future—a future where fashion is not just worn, but performed; not just seen, but felt.
In a landscape hungry for newness yet reverent of legacy, Jean Paul Gaultier’s Pre-Fall 2025 campaign with Jennie stands as a beacon: a reminder that true innovation lies in the fearless collision of past and future, fantasy and reality, vision and voice.
