Apr 7, 2017 5:07AM EDT
Jean Paul Gaultier Turns Guest Editor of French TV Guide
By Joelle Diderich
Joelle Diderich
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Jean Paul Gaultier.
CREDIT: REX/Shutterstock
"TV made me who I am," Jean Paul Gaultier declared in an interview with French TV magazine Télécâble Sat Hebdo, which made him guest editor of its latest issue.
It's timed to coincide with the screening of the documentary "Jean Paul Gaultier Voyage" ("Jean Paul Gaultier Travels" in English) on cable channel Paris Première on April 19. Director Emmanuel Le Ber followed the designer on a trip to Argentina, Mexico and Brazil last year to launch his fragrances in those markets.
Shoving vanity aside, Gaultier gleefully defaced his photograph on the cover of the magazine, adding touches like hand-drawn red nails, red lips, blue eyes and forehead wrinkles, which he said looked like the stripes on his signature sailor tops.
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In a filmed extract of the interview, Gaultier confessed to being a TV addict. "I sometimes cancel professional commitments to watch certain things on TV," he said. "I mostly watch things that are liable to inspire me."
Indeed, Gaultier featured French reality television star Nabilla Benattia, dressed in a va-va-voom black bustier gown, in his fall 2013 haute couture show, and bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst, winner of the 2014 "Eurovision" song contest, was the star of his fall 2014 display.
And the designer's spring 2014 ready-to-wear show was an homage to "Dancing With the Stars," with a judging panel including choreographer Blanca Li, and his swan-song ready-to-wear show later that year was a spoof beauty pageant.
In addition to appearing on the long-running British late-night entertainment show "Eurotrash" alongside Antoine de Caunes, Gaultier has also been a commentator on the "Eurovision" show and was president of the "Miss France" jury in 2015.
The issue is scheduled to go on sale April 10.