Jean-Paul Gaultier is a French fashion designer born on April 24, 1952 in Arcueil, Val-de-Marne, France. At age 18, he joined the house of Pierre Cardin before moving on to Jacques Esterel and Patou. The debut of Gaultier’s own collection was in 1976, but he did not officially launch his own design house until 1982. His style is known to challenge standard views of fashion. He collaborated with Madonna in 1990 to create her infamous conical bras. In 2003, he became head designer at Hermes where he worked until 2011. Diet Coke appointed Gaultier as its new creative director in 2012

The Gaultier style of the 1980s was identifiable by the famous silhouette of broad and sloping shoulders and narrow hips that emphasized stockinged legs. In the 1990s his palette of colors and materials was enriched by contact with many cultural worlds. The silhouette became more balanced, and comfort and protection took on added importance. His shows, with their exuberant and provocative staging, long obscured the fact that his clothes are designed to be worn. At the beginning of the millennium, he attained a certain classicism without renouncing the original image of his talent as the enfant terrible of fashion.

Gaultier's work has been characterized by a stylistic consistency since 1976: jacket and pants constitute the basic link between male and female wardrobes. The masculinity of double-breasted jacket, fitted coat, leather jacket, overalls, trench coat, smock, and down jacket is inflected by the femininity of corset, stockings, and garters, or is enriched by Eastern touches, by the influence of caftans and djellabas.

Mixtures and superimpositions make lingerie an item of clothing in itself, so that hybrid costumes like chemise-jackets and pants-skirts make up an unexpected wardrobe. Some accessories, such as ties and leotards, sewn together, become new textile materials. While women have adopted masculine attire, men are not far behind, and in Gaultier's shows they have worn skirts, corsets, and dresses with trains, increasing their masculinity. Gaultier has brought great care to textiles and employed the most luxurious materials; wool, taffeta, and velvet, for example, are blended with rayon, latex, imitation leather, and synthetic tulle. Lycra blended with traditional materials provides comfort in his designs. His designs often give fabrics a worn, faded look, as though they had already been worn. Knitwear in every form, always present, season after season, has been one of his distinctive signs. Precious fabrics enhance work clothes or military uniforms, and denim flourishes in evening dresses.

Navy blue, khaki, brown, red, and deep purple-Gaultier's original colors-have in the course of time been joined by salmon and powder pink, orange, turquoise, beige, and bronze. His motifs make up a distinctive repertoire: astrology, including the bull's head from his own sign; tattoos, writing, escutcheons, Celtic symbols, and faces; and religious themes like the cross, the star of David, and the hand of Fatima, all appear in a variety of forms on his fabrics, and are printed or sewn on accessories, particularly on jewelry. Stripes, plaids, and polka dots have been fetish designs for Gaultier. Certain details are trademarks, such as fastenings for his clothes: his designs feature distinctive zippers, laces, hooks, tortoiseshell buttons, or buttons with an anchor design.

A creator of images and atmospheres, Jean-Paul Gaultier could not avoid the cinema. He has created costumes for films of Peter Greenaway, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Pedro Almodóvar, and Luc Besson. He has made stage costumes for Madonna and the dancer and choreographer Régine Chopinot. In 1993 he hosted a television show on Channel 5 in England.

Jean-Paul Gaultier's strong personality and his multifaceted universe have for decades influenced the worlds of both fashion and street clothes. He has enabled people to think about the place of clothing in contemporary society. Breaking the last taboos of the late twentieth century, his designs have exalted the theme of androgyny, brought men and women closer, moved to put an end to the prejudice against age, given sublime expression to the encounter between worlds and cultures, and associated memory with the strictly contemporary.

Sonia Rykiel was born in Paris, France in 1930. At the age of 17, she was employed to dress the window displays in a Parisian textile store. Her first designs in 1962, were of maternity dresses for herself because she was unable to find any soft sweaters when she was pregnant. Shortly after, she started designing for her husband's company Laura. 

One of her first creations was the Poorboy Sweater, which made the cover of Elle fashion magazine, and brought her fame. She later became the first designer to put seams on the outside of a garment, and to print words on her sweater. 

In 1968, she opened her first boutique. Specializing in knitwear, Rykiel is a first rate designer, creating elegant, fluid garments in soft wools, jersey, angor and mohair. 

A sensual outline is important to her garments and many are figure-hugging. She has also experimented with seams (reversing them to the outside) and with asymmetrical cuts. Her Lurex knitwear is sophisticated enough for evening. P align=left style='margin-right:30.0pt;margin-left:.5in'> The Americans call her the "Queen of Knitwear". She is the one who encouraged Robert Altman to make his ready-to-wear film "Pret-a-Porter. 

In particular, she favours long clinging sweaters or small cropped pullovers, large rolled-back cuffs and long shawls. Her outer wear often includes voluminous cape-like garments. Her colours are predominantly beige, grey, dark blue and charcoal. Rykiel has written many books, including an A to Z of fashion, and a collection of childrens stories. 

In October 2001, she showed her Spring 2002 collection at the Louvre in Paris, proving that nothing has changed in almost 40 years she has been designing. Her slim fitted sweaters, her love for scrawling random words across a chest or down an arm endures, as does her signature stripes. 

Even though she is in her 70's, Sonia is no prude. In her latest collection, she has included sex toys, amusing underwear and vibrators to signify the freedom of women. 

Her daughter Nathalie collaborates with her now, on all her fashion activities. 

Thapelo is a French resort wear brand that encompasses the spirit of French couture while offering innovative and modern design sensibilities. The brand debuted in 2011 with a small capsule collection of luxury swimwear and has since evolved to include ready-to-wear and resort accessories to complete the sophisticated woman’s wardrobe of refined vacation essentials. Inspired by chic, style icons of a former era, Thapelo modernizes luxury resortwear for its discerning, world-traveling clientele, while maintaining an approach deeply rooted in French couture.

Based in the French capital, Thapelo uses only the highest quality fabrics, sustainably sourced from trusted, local suppliers. Refusing to compromise on the integrity of the product, Thapelo has partnered with the finest French garment ateliers that manufacture luxury product in a mindful, eco-conscious manner, as they have for generations. As the first swimwear brand awarded the ‘Origin France Guarantee’ certification, Thapelo continues to manufacture in France in support of its local artisans, sustainable practices, and quality assurance for each collection.