In 1983, Jean-Paul Gaultier debuted his first ready to wear menswear collection, entitled ‘L’Homme Objet’. The collection featured the designer’s own take on the ‘marinière’, the French seaman shirt, which soon became an essential element of his design grammar.

Uniforms hold a special fascination for fashion designers. Designers can borrow from them a plethora of values, consciously or unconsciously associated to uniforms, as well as use them to legitimize their visions or to wreck their usual codes. Jean-Paul Gaultier borrowed the ‘marinière’, the striped knitted shirt, to make it the epitome of his own vision on menswear.

Ensemble designed by Jean Paul Gaultier, 1985. Courtesy Les Arts Décoratifs, all rights reserved.

The ‘marinière’ became a constitutive element of the French Navy uniform in 1858. Worn by seamen and quartermasters, the knitted cotton shirt was characterized by its white and blue striped pattern. By rule, the number of stripes is set at 21 white stripes alternated at 20 or 21 blue stripes. The sleeves instead present 15 white stripes and 14 or 15 blue stripes. It is sad that each of the 21 stripes represent a naval victory by Napoléon Bonaparte; however, on a more pragmatic base, its particular design makes it easy to seamen’s to be spot if they fell overboard.

Jean-Paul Gaultier was although inspired to adopt the ‘marinière’ in the 1983 collection by the movie ‘Querelle de Brest’ by Rainer Fassbinder (1983). The movie followed the handsome Belgian sailor Querelle, portrayed by Brad Davis, in his erotic adventures in the seedy places and the brothel of the port of Brest. Gaultier found in the film the portrayal of his ideal man, who he homaged in his show featuring a cropped version of the top, cut-out in the back and short enough to expose the bare hips of the model, playing with homoerotic connotations and a highly sexualized idea of masculinity.

Jean-Paul Gaultier at his women's s/s ready to wear fashion show in 1983. Photo © Paul van Riel / HH.

In his playful takeover, the designer made the ‘marinière’ an element of the parodic ‘French uniform’. As a result, he featured the shirt in many other collections of his, transforming it in various range of garments – from tank tops to couture gowns. Gaultier also made the white and blue stripes a consitutive element of his own personal style: the striped shirt soon became the designer’s own uniform, which he has worn in much of his public appearances and portraits.