Jean Paul Gaultier Fall 2011 Collection

A wrong turn.

The word of the day, unfortunately, is lackluster. Ever the Clown Prince of Fashion, Jean Paul Gaultier seems to have paid short shrift to the fashion part this time around and got a little too caught up in the clown part. We've always loved his lighthearted approach to things in an industry that can be positively dripping with pretension and self-importance at times, but at the end of the day, it was always about the clothes. He could almost always be counted on to back up his theatrical impulses with some beautiful, chic pieces. With this collection, called "Granny Chic," the theatricality takes over for the design and the result is clumsy and matronly (in the worst sense of the word). Part of us thinks he deliberately approached the design on a parodic level; a sort of "Hey, let's do a collection of frumpy old lady clothes and put them on 20-year-old models. Won't that be fun?" Well, not really. Especially since almost everything is rendered in some of the ugliest fabrics we've seen on a runway in a while.

Talk about disappointing. We've always been pretty hardcore Gaultier fanboys but with this succession of ill-fitting, frumpy looks, we think JPG may have lost the plot.