Target is ready to walk on the wild side with Jean Paul Gaultier.
Sources told WWD that Gaultier is next up in the discounter’s Designer Collaboration series, a relatively new concept geared to bolster the chain’s cheap-chic status.
A Gaultier collection wouldn’t appear in the stores for some time, but Target, said sources, has the ball in motion.
“We don’t have anything to share other than we admire his work and incredible design aesthetic,” a Target spokesman said Thursday.
A spokeswoman for Gaultier declined comment.
Target’s DC series entails recruiting established designers with strong reputations to create collections based on their muses or other creative inspirations.
The series made its debut with Alexander McQueen in March with McQ Alexander McQueen for Target, inspired by Leila Moss, lead singer of The Duke Spirit. Anna Sui followed this month by channeling the TV program “Gossip Girl.” She’s a fan of the show.
The collections were rolled out to hundreds of Target stores and also are sold on target.com and stay available for four months or so.
Sui’s collection ranges from leather jackets, priced at $149.99, to metallic jacquard dresses and silk wrap dresses, at $59.99. Target created a pop-up store for Sui, at a private four-story town house at 54 Crosby Street in SoHo, which opened Sept. 9 to big crowds after being megahyped, and closed Sunday. Target could do a pop-up store for Gaultier, as well.
Gaultier is known for edgy street fashion interpretations, a Parisian panache, over-the-edge couture, generating lots of media and groupie followings.