From The Straits Times    |

Jean Paul Gaultier has joked Anna Wintour is “more monstrous” than the editor in The Devil Wears Prada.

The 2006 movie was based on a book and followed a young woman as she started a career on a fashion magazine. Her formidable editor was harsh and unapproachable, and at the time it was speculated that she was based on US Vogue head Anna Wintour.

Gaultier enjoys watching movies about fashion, but that one wasn’t his favourite.

“Anna Wintour is a lot more monstrous than she is described!” he laughed to British newspaper The Independent, and was then asked if she is a positive figure. “She is a figure,” he replied.

The designer is now the subject of his own movie, called Jean Paul Gaultier Ou Les Codes Bouleversés (Jean Paul Gaultier Or the Shattered Codes). It was made by model and his former muse Farida Khelfa, and he is delighted with the finished project.

“She knows me. She can show things even that I don’t realise about myself,” he explained.

Gaultier is renowned for his iconic pieces, including the conical bra he made for Madonna. He also once dressed David Beckham in a skirt, and wishes more designers would take the sort of risks he does.

“When I did the skirt, it was more like a symbol of equality for fashion for men and women… also, [to show that] men can be seductive and also men can be ‘male objects’. It was not to scandalise or whatever,” he insisted. “Show your sensitive and fragile part.”

Gaultier also discussed the John Galliano scandal. The designer has been found guilty of making anti-Semitic and racist comments in France, which cost him his jobs at Christian Dior and his eponymous label earlier this year.

Gaultier insists it was pressure which caused Galliano’s issues and hopes he will return to fashion in the future.

“John is very talented. He has done some beautiful things for Dior. I think it is completely sad that he doesn’t have his own label anymore. I think it’s bad. There are some people who say and do terrible things and they are not even punished for it,” he said. © COVER MEDIA