"Le Male" by Jean Paul Gaultier is exhibited in a sensory retrospective The House offers a free immersive exhibition, between marinières, body liberation and its iconic perfume

From June 12 to 15, Jean Paul Gaultier takes us on a journey. An olfactory journey, but also a journey through time. 30 years after the release of his fragrance Le Mâle, created in collaboration with perfumer Francis Kurkdjian in 1995, Maison Gaultier and the Puig group to which it belongs now present a visual and scented retrospective with the exhibition And Gaultier Created Man - Le Mâle: Past, Present, Future. A free exhibition held at the House’s headquarters (located at 325 Rue Saint-Martin in the 3rd arrondissement), it promises to awaken all our senses. The retrospective is structured in several parts, like the fragrance with its top, heart, and base notes. The exhibition begins in the past, a past tinged with bittersweet nostalgia and creations inspired by Jean Paul Gaultier’s emblem: the marinière. In addition to infusing the designer’s collections, the striped pattern also adorned the bottle of Le Mâle, in an indirect homage to Cocteau, Genet, Fassbinder, and all those men who fantasized about sailors’ bodies. A symbol of the deconstruction of traditional masculinity, the marinière defies conventional norms and quickly became both the designer’s uniform and his signature. On the first floor, visitors then discover a space designed by Pepo Moreno and his “studio pipi,” a replica of his workshop in tribute to the famous restroom attendants of Parisian toilets, presenting an accumulation of bodies, graffiti, and muscles. A steamy encounter in a locker room bathroom, in public restrooms, in an environment where the uninhibited body reigns supreme and where new scents are created and breathed.

The experience continues with the discovery of 3 ambiances unfolding like the notes of a fragrance: top notes, heart notes, and base notes. The top note represents the first encounter with the fragrance, the most immediate part of the olfactory pyramid, embodied by an immersive, playful, and surreal environment. This part of the exhibition showcases the experience of the original and fiery essence of Le Mâle: transgression. The theatrical lexicon dear to the designer wraps around his most iconic creations, showing how fashion’s enfant terrible has continually challenged, deconstructed, blended, and played with the codes of “masculinity” since his first menswear collection in 1984 and his male muses. While the exhibition centers on the fragrance, the androgynous fashion celebrating all bodies, shameless and boundless, of the enfant terrible is also highlighted. From metal bustiers to corsets for men and unisex skirts, everything blends: genders, cultures, high and low, past, present, and future. We continue our journey with “Le Festival de Can,” a monumental installation created by artists graduated from the École Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne, using the vocabulary of an industrial space and urban scaffolding as a backdrop to present photographs that reinterpret Le Mâle.

After the top note comes the heart note, the most voluptuous, the one that gives the composition its character, its personality, its overall emotion. A note embodied in the exhibition by the immersive environment “You Smell Good, You Know,” dedicated to the exploration of the olfactory construction of Le Mâle. Which leads us to the base note, the foundation of its composition, the densest and most intense part of the olfactory pyramid, also called the signature. A signature embodied in “The Mâle Factory,” a final installation that invites visitors to explore the legacy left by the designer and step into a performative and provocative environment. It does so through a clear and defined common thread: the culture Jean Paul Gaultier has eloquently and freely championed throughout his career—homoeroticism, seduction, cultural blending, street life, and queer history. The Mâle Factory highlights contemporary artists who carry on the transgressive spirit that defined and made famous the enfant terrible of fashion. Among them is the work of Iranian artist Alireza Shojaian, who challenges societal prejudices about non-heteronormative masculine identities; German-Egyptian artist Mahmoud Khaled, who presents a series of twenty close-up black-and-white photographs revealing striptease scenes; and filmmaker-artist Léolo Victor-Pujebet, a leading figure of the young arty-porn gay scene in Europe, who will present a film screened during the exhibition. In a mix of fashion, perfumery, history, heritage, raw masculinity, and above all, authenticity, And Gaultier Created Man - Le Mâle: Past, Present, Future is an incredible opportunity not only for Jean Paul Gaultier to celebrate an iconic and successful career, but also for the public to discover a small part of his story, perhaps still unknown to some, for free.