Gaultier's Couture Elegance - With Eyeliner Jean Paul Gaultier, summer 2012 couture season, in Paris. PARIS - Is it acceptable to send your models out with disheveled black hair, an uptick of eyeliner and in curvy satin corsets, while four gospel singers make all but an homage to the late Amy Winehouse? But what if it is a performance from Jean Paul Gaultier , for whom borderline bad taste is stock in trade, and the clothes are a dream of couture elegance - hourglass tailoring to create a vision of the singer as she might have been without her self-destructive demons? By any standards this was an exceptional Gaultier couture show, with its impeccably cut and very Parisian coats and suits that rarely went "back to black." Instead, accents of orange or full-on yellow, green and turquoise would trace a slim dress that might be slipping off the shoulder or opening saucily at the back to give a glimpse of a bra. The designer, who was one of the first to riff on visible underwear, lost no opportunity to open a peep show window on what lay beneath. But it was done with such ineffable grace that vulgarity did not enter the picture. Even at the finale, when the models were stripped to their corsets, it seemed like a reprise of another showgirl look, like a glittering gold suit. That glitzy glamour was balanced by a swish of a silken bathrobe printed with marble squares, as if from the floor of a palazzo. "It is very joyous," Mr. Gaultier said backstage. ""To me the scandal is that no fashion magazine did an Amy Winehouse cover. She was so exceptional in her style; how she held her body; the way she dressed, mixing pieces from different decades. Mr. Gaultier might have been talking about the spirit of his own creations - like a riding coat suit - that have now become codes of his image. His imagination, his cutting skills and his unstoppable work ethic are being rewarded by the brand's new owners, the Puig fragrance family, who have brought in the seasoned French fashion manager Ralph Toledano to manage the fashion side. The designer, who turns 60 this year, has been an uplifting presence in fashion for more than 30 years. And for his loyal couture clients built up over the past decade, loving Mr. Gaultier is not a losing game. Martin Margiela is now a shadow and a memory, since he has left the house that bares his name. Yet the Artisinal collections of one-off pieces touched by human handwork had a fine feeling this season. From antique embroidered bed linen made into easy, elongated pieces, through a pantsuit entirely covered with buttons like the clothes of London's Pearly Kings, there was a sweetness to the collection. The strength of the Margiela brand has always been in its ethical stand about re-using existing clothes to create fresh ideas. A mom's apron dress, made from cushion covers of the wartime era, complete with the names of U.S. military bases and love letters, had a poignancy that proved that the quoted 36 hours of work had not been done in vain.