Jean Paul Gaultier freed the nipple at his catwalk show last night
Image courtesy of @fashiontomax
Jean Paul Gaultier featured the slogan “Free the Nipple” as part of his Paris Haute Couture catwalk show last night.
The runway, populated with slick, inky, black tailored blazers; voluminous, emerald cocktail dresses, and monochromatic suits; also featured two models who closed the show wearing matching flared trousers and transparent perspex chest-plates emblazoned with ‘Free the Nipple’ and ‘Tetons Libres’.
The designer has been vocal about body autonomy in the past and famously designed Madonna’s now iconic conical bras. Speaking to media platform, AFP, he said, “ If men had the right to go bare-chested why not women?"
The show, themed around Smoking. No Smoking was read by many as a political response to new proposals from the French government to implement a smoking ban in Paris’s public parks. The phrase appeared on sheer black face masks, worn by models on the runway.
Many read the move as a radical statement towards Instagram, too, known to regularly delete images of women’s bare nipples, while others have seen the move to be in solidarity with Florida teenager Lizzie Martinez, who earlier this year was told by teachers to apply plasters over her nipples after attending school without a bra under her shirt.