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Gaultier lights up fashion week with provocative ode to smoking

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Reuters

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/life/07/05/20180705-gaultier-lights.jpg"/><figcaption>Models present creations by French designer Jean Paul Gaultier as part of his Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2018/2019 collection show in Paris, France. Gonzalo Fuentes, Reuters</figcaption></figure></div>PARIS -- With sultry tuxedos and a gown that appeared to waft down the catwalk like cigarette smoke, French designer Jean Paul Gaultier celebrated smoking in all its forms on Wednesday in a fashion show filled with tongue-in-cheek digs at overly rigid attitudes.Reinterpretations of &quot;Le Smoking&quot; -- or tuxedos for women popularized by late French couturier Yves Saint Laurent in the 1960s -- dominated the Haute Couture collection, with black and white combinations of jackets and ruffled dresses for instance.The designer took smoke as his inspiration for a see-through dress decked out in swirling embellishments, or a wedding gown with a featherlight, waspy train that looked like it could vanish into thin air as it twirled on the runway.Gaultier, the self-style &quot;enfant terrible&quot; of the fashion world, was also deliberately harking back to a period when smoking was more widely acceptable.&quot;I don&#x27;t smoke, but I was always surrounded by people that were smoking,&quot; Gaultier said after the show in Paris. &quot;I don&#x27;t say &#x27;don&#x27;t smoke or smoke,&#x27; it&#x27;s only that people should do what they want.&quot;Smoking was banned in public places in France in 2006, echoing clampdowns in many other countries by authorities for health reasons.The collection also featured a pair of male and female models walking in step and showcasing their breasts behind transparent panels with the slogan &quot;Free the nipple.&quot;Gaultier said that felt that society had taken some steps backwards following the &quot;free-all&quot; protest movements of feminists in the 1960s and 1970s.&quot;Now there is again a kind of puritanism that arrived. Me, I am for the bra, but ... to oblige people to wear a bra, no, I&#x27;m not for that at all,&quot; added the designer, famous for creating a stage costume for singer Madonna featuring a conical bra.Gaultier&#x27;s couture brand is owned by private Spanish fashion and fragrance group Puig.Paris Haute Couture Week -- where a select club of fashion houses present their one-of-a-kind creations and showcase some of their most elaborate styles -- runs until July 5. On Thursday top jewellery brands are presenting their collections.

French designer Jean Paul Gaultier celebrated smoking in all its forms on Wednesday in a fashion show filled with tongue-in-cheek digs at overly rigid attitudes.

French designer Jean Paul Gaultier celebrated smoking in all its forms on Wednesday in a fashion show filled with tongue-in-cheek digs at overly rigid attitudes.