PARIS, May 27 ― Jean Paul Gaultier is returning to ready-to-wear fashion, six years after he stopped designing off-the-peg clothes to focus on haute couture, the house said yesterday.

The "enfant terrible” of French fashion bowed out after five decades in the business with a final Paris haute couture show 16 months ago.

The house still bears his name and is owned by Barcelona-based Puig and will work with rotating teams of young collaborators for new collections.

The first collection ― which reinterprets his trademark striped sailor tops ― will be available online at the end of the week.

It arrives just in time for the LGBTQ Pride festival season, the house said.

US model Bella Hadid features in the collections campaign, sporting the new "unisex, inclusive” collection "that exudes sea air”, the house said.

The creative team have "revived” Gaultier's ready-to-wear lines, it added.

Nicola Lecourt Mansion has created a black body mesh, strassed with stripes, while Spanish stylist Palomo Spain designed a floral corset.

And German house Ottolinger has reworked the sailor shirt in a tight-fitting jumpsuit with distorted zebra stripes.

The conical bra made famous by Madonna has been reinterpreted by London-based Brazilian punk jewellery designer Alan Crocetti. Frenchman Marvin M'Toumo is in charge of the "shellfish and crustaceans” accessories.

The haute couture shows, also with guest stylists, will resume in Paris in July, a spokeman for the house told AFP.

The first guest designer for Gaultier's couture collection is Japan's Chitose Abe, of the Sacai brand.

The catwalk was supposed to have taken place last July, but was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. ― ETX Studio