Jean Paul Gaultier and Sculpteo 3D Print AW26 Haute Couture

Jean Paul Gaultier turned to additive manufacturing for five looks in its autumn/winter 2026-27 haute couture collection, shown in Paris in July. Creative director Duran Lantink asked designer ROMI to develop printed pieces, then sent them to French service Sculpteo for production.

The structural pieces came off HP Multi Jet Fusion machines in PA12 and flexible TPU. For look 19, the snake scales dress, Sculpteo printed thousands of individual PA12 scales on selective laser sintering. Each scale was sewn on by hand, overlapping like real snake skin. The material itself does not bend, but the garment does because of how the scales are arranged.

Look 7, the deformed bustier, arrived at Matisse Di Maggio's Paris atelier in raw TPU. The team sanded and primed the piece, then dipped it repeatedly into latex tinted to match the model's skin. Freckles and moles were hand-painted. The nipples were cast separately in latex and applied afterward.

Look 11 is the 3D printed guipure dress. The bodice and domed skirt structure were both printed, then Maison du Flock applied fiber by hand onto the shell. Look 26 started with a 3D scan of the model's body. That scan was reworked in modeling software, growing animal-like protrusions until the torso read as a feathered serpent. Sculpteo printed the result in TPU in sections, and Maison Février covered the whole thing in pink feathers.

Look 32 is a burgundy bodysuit built around a 3D printed core, most likely in TPU. Whitaker Malem formed leather over that base into an armored torso shell, then hand-dyed the hide burgundy, a process that took about eight hours before cutting, skiving, polishing, sewing, and forming began.

The printer made the shape. The ateliers made it couture. For a house like Gaultier, that means geometry that could not be cut and sewn any other way, delivered on a schedule that leaves no room for trial and error.