Few in fashion embody the label ‘rebel’ as authentically as Duran Lantink. The Dutch designer is based away from the fashion capitals, residing, as he does, in Amsterdam; he hates the word ‘luxury’ and will speak at length about not caring for opinions on his work. He isn’t driven by celebrity moments (although there have been a few, with Troye Sivan, Demi Moore and Naomi Campbell all recently spotted wearing his designs, the latter on the cover of ELLE UK). Instead, his approach is all about emphasising creativity over commercialism and instinct over convention.
‘Now is the time for change,’ Lantink says. ‘We’ve been stuck in a cycle of repeating trends over and over again. I’m excited about proposing new ideas and then imagining that into a free space.’
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It's this kind of thinking that has caught the attention of the fashion industry big hitters — and landed him the top job at couture house Jean Paul Gaultier. Lantink is the label's first permanent creative director since Jean Paul Gaultier himself stepped down in 2020. ‘I see in him the energy, audacity, and playful spirit through fashion that I had at the beginning of my own journey,’ Gaultier said, dubbing Lantink ‘the new enfant terrible of fashion.’ (Lantink's debut Jean Paul Gaultier collection will be presented in September.)
For nearly 15 years, Lantink has honed his craft from his studio in the Netherlands’ capital, surrounded by a close-knit creative community of family and friends. Since the get-go, he’s prioritised circularity, creating collections using deadstock and repurposed fabrics long before it was trendy. Last September, his efforts were recognised with the prestigious LVMH Karl Lagerfeld Prize, hot on the heels of his Andam Special Prize win the previous year.
On the runway, Lantink does a rare and brilliant thing, whereby clothes simultaneously appear both abnormal and wearable. ‘Our approach to design came out of a curiosity for what you can do with a classic,’ he says.
His bizarre, bulbous forms playfully subvert the mundane and, on closer inspection, resemble bomber jackets, trench-coats and cotton shirts blown out of proportion at the shoulders and hips, dramatically cropped or seemingly pumped full of air.
For Lantink’s spring/summer 2025 collection, shown during Paris Fashion Week, he looked to the sun-soaked shores of Ibiza for inspiration. Blown-out bikini tops, rubber-ring skirts and stick-of-rock stripes lit up the catwalk, as did new experimentations with repurposed denim in micro-miniskirts and puffed-out panties.
‘We are trying to create a new type of person,’ he says. ‘We think about what would be interesting to see in the streets, rather than tapping into what already exists.’ In other words, Lantink’s laser focus is on making clothes he thinks are missing from the world. ‘You’ve just got to go with your instinct.’
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