Лучшие картинки

We are sitting at a dining-table in the imposing building close to the Gard du Nord in Paris where Gaultier creates his couture and ready-to-wear lines. 'Can you believe it?’ he says. 'When I first started out I had shows in strange places – clubs and out-of-the-way places. I moved around, but now… I ’ave this! This is my world now I am growing old. Who would have thought it?’

It does all seem terribly grand. For when Gaultier launched his label in 1976 he quickly became known for his cheeky collections, which reworked street fashion and seemed to poke fun at the staid world of French haute couture. 'Beige!’ he says, holding his head in his hands and pretending to be in pain. 'Everything in beige! All just so la-la-la and I am saying, “There is beige and then there is beige.”’

But maybe this grand building, with its theatre-like long velvet curtains at the entrance and its staff of beautiful women clacking about in high heels and well-cut black prêt-à-porter Gaultier dresses, is only what the man deserves. He is incredibly successful and has been working in fashion since he left school at 18, when, with no formal training, he joined Pierre Cardin. He went on to work at the couture houses Jacques Esterel and Jean Patou before going it alone. His first show under his own name was at the Palais de la Découverte science museum in Paris. Since then he has done so many weird and wonderful themed collections it is hard to do them all justice – there was James Bond in 1979, Dadaism of 1983 and, a decade ago, Dandy-Biker Glam. More recently, his autumn/winter 2009 show was all about the letter X. In 2008 he had designed the costumes for Kylie Minogue’s X tour and in his subsequent show sent various outfits down the catwalk all inspired by the letter. He has also just released a new scent called Classique X.

While I wait for Gaultier I rifle through pieces from his most recent couture collection, inspired by his favourite Hollywood heroines and hanging on high rails. There are long trouser suits in damson silk – very Katharine Hepburn. There are many versions of his conical-breasted corset dresses – something of a Gaultier signature ever since Madonna wore them for her 1990s Blond Ambition tour. There is a skirt made from plastic and short coats and jackets that have dresses sewn into them. But I can’t help wondering whether any of this would be possible without Gaultier’s hugely successful fragrances. His female perfume, Classique, and the men’s Le Male, both distinctive for their bottles shaped like torsos and outer packaging made to look like tin cans, were launched in 1993 and are bestsellers – four bottles of Classique are sold every minute worldwide. I ask him how dependent his couture house is on perfume sales. Gaultier shrugs. 'I am not a businessman,’ he says. He does admit, however, that the couture industry is in decline. 'Of course!’ he says. He throws his hands in the air. 'When I first started out Hollywood stars came and tried on the dresses and had many fittings. Now they expect the dresses for free. I hear some designers even pay them to wear their clothes. It is ’opeless.’

Fortunately, Gaultier’s playful designs seem never to go out of style, despite the shocked headlines he has excited over the years – though these owe as much to his habit of using 'real’ people to model on the catwalk. 'The fashion press could not understand it,’ he says. 'But I say, “Why not?” It is what inspires me. I don’t like to be safe. I use what I see. There is no point in me sitting ’ere in my couture house and not knowing what is going on there…’ He waves his hands towards the windows. 'You ’ave to be aware of what is going on in the street.’

By now a man has moved a table to the front of the huge room near the windows and laid it out with a beautiful white linen table cloth and silver cutlery for our lunch. We are served a clear soup full of vegetables and radish tops followed by some steamed fish. 'I got very fat,’ Gaultier says. 'Now I ’ave to watch what I eat.’ Meanwhile, around us, assistants buzz back and forth. Occasionally, I see them looking at their watches and pointing at us. Monsieur Gaultier’s time is obviously of the essence and yet he is happily chatting away, telling me how he designed a corset for his cat. (It’s always about corsets with him, it seems.) 'Do you know,’ he says, 'that cats can’t wear corsets?’ He giggles a little. 'Do you ’ave a cat?’

I tell him I do.

'Have you ever tied something round his middle?’