When Jean Paul Gaultier announced at the beginning of the women's wear season's four-ring, four-week circus that this Saturday's show would be his last ready-to-wear collection, and that he was going to concentrate on couture and fragrance and special collaborations like costumes and interiors instead, it seemed like the end of an era.
在这个辗转四城、为期四周的女装季之初，让·保罗·高缇耶(Jean Paul Gaultier)就宣布：周六的走秀将是他的最后一个成衣系列，此后他将专注于高级定制服装和香水，以及戏服和室内设计方面的特殊合作，感觉像是一个时代结束了。
The first reaction was shock: Oh, no! How can we imagine a ready-to-wear schedule without the one-time enfant terrible of French fashion — whose ready-to-wear shows had been among the hottest tickets in fashion week, with editors literally fighting for entree? Even if, in recent seasons, many of those same editors (myself included) had thought (or, ahem, written) that Mr. Gaultier's ready-to-wear was becoming increasingly irrelevant, relying on the crutch of old ideas that may have been sensationalist 15 years ago, but now seemed achingly familiar?
人们的第一反应是震惊：啊，不！我们怎能想象成衣盛事中不再有这个法国时尚曾经的淘气鬼呢——在这个时装季上，他的成衣秀的入场券最为抢手，时尚编辑们为了入场资格“大打出手”。最近几季，这些时装编辑中有许多人（包括我自己在内）也觉得高缇耶的成衣愈来愈落后于潮流，依仗的是了无新意的创意，它们放在15年前可能很轰动，今天就显得极其平庸了，尽管如此，我们还是会抢票。
Then came sadness: Was this yet another example of commerce squashing creativity, with the Spanish conglomerate Puig, which bought a majority stake in Mr. Gaultier's company from Hermès in 2011, bloodlessly stopping support of what had ceased to be a moneymaking endeavor? (Well, it's a license business, so probably not.) Absent from the ready-to-wear schedule and all the attention it draws, would Mr. Gaultier, like Christian Lacroix, another formerly famous French name that slid off the schedule on the back of falling sales and who is now concentrating on (yup) costumes and other collaborations, fade into the ether of long ago?
随之而来的反应是悲伤：这是否又是一个商业击垮创意的例子呢？要知道，2011年，西班牙产业集团普依格(Puig)从爱马仕手中买下了高缇耶公司的多数股份，它无情地停止支持那些不能赚钱的尝试（好吧，它是一家特许公司，所以答案可能是否定的）。高缇耶离开了成衣走秀和它所带来的各种关注，是否会走上克里斯汀·拉克鲁瓦(Christian Lacroix)的老路，消失在过去时代的迷雾之中呢？拉克鲁瓦也曾是一个响亮的法国名字，销量下滑后离开了成衣走秀，如今专注于（这个……）戏服和其他方面的合作。
But then, after sitting through show after show in New York and London and Milan, I started to think perhaps we were looking at this the wrong way.
但是在纽约、伦敦和米兰看了一场又一场的走秀之后，我开始觉得我们的视角或许错了。
Maybe it is a much-needed public acknowledgment of a subject that has been mumbled and grumbled about in ateliers and over dinners throughout the last few weeks, as vintage this and accessible that have been regularly repackaged and presented as the Hot New Thing.
就像古董或普通的东西经常被拿出来重新包装成流行的新玩意，它不再退出成衣系列的消息最近几周来成为了各工作室和餐桌上的热门话题，而他的声明是对这个话题非常有必要的公开承认。
Maybe this is someone finally acting on the belief that what the cycle now demands from designers — to be creative and original about every two months — is not sustainable. Maybe it is someone making a choice, and just saying no. And he is doing it with corporate support (the corporate side of things, in fashion, often being demonized as bleeding designers dry instead of allowing them the luxury of fewer products).
时装圈要求设计师每隔两个月都要有创意和创新，或许他相信这种事很难维持下去，于是终于采取了行动。或许他做了选择，对此说“不”。他的做法得到了公司的支持（在时装界，公司方面经常被妖魔化为榨干设计师的鲜血，而不是允许他们享有只推出少量产品的奢侈）。
After all, when Mr. Gaultier started his business in 1982, fashion was not even an industry. Designers made two collections a year. When he introduced couture in 1997, that brought his grand total of collections up to four. With men's wear, it went to ... six!
毕竟，当高缇耶从1982年创办自己的公司时，时装甚至还算不上工业。设计师们每年推出两个系列。1997年，他引入了高级定制概念，于是每年总共要推出四个系列。加上男装，就变成了……六个系列！
Now, of course, a designer in a similar position is looking at about double that, thanks to the rise of pre-collections and occasion collections. And given that from 2003 to 2010 Mr. Gaultier was also the artistic director of Hermès women's wear, you can add a few more numbers to the list.
如今，由于预系列和临时系列的兴起，像他这样的设计师工作量可能要翻番。而且从2003年至2010年，高缇耶还担任爱马仕女装的艺术总监，你可以在他的工作列表上再添几项。
As a result, said the designer in a letter to Women's Wear Daily explaining his decision, "Commercial constraints, as well as the frenetic pace of collections, don't leave any freedom, nor the necessary time to find fresh ideas and to innovate."
其结果正如这位设计师发表在《女装日报》(Women's Wear Daily)，解释自己决定的信中所说：“商业的限制以及推出系列的疯狂步调让我不得自由，也没有时间去革新、寻找新的创意。”
Arguably his creative famine is his own fault for having taken on so much over the years, however good the reasons seemed at the time (to support his own line; for the challenge; all of the above). But there is no greater proof of his words than his own career.
认为他才思枯竭是自己造成的这样一种看法——因为这些年他负担一直太重，不管理由在当时是多么理所当然（支持自己的品牌、接受挑战，或者上述全部）——是值得商榷的。不过，事实胜过雄辩。
Mr. Gaultier's extraordinary technical abilities and understanding of how to construct a garment, skills he learned in the ateliers of Pierre Cardin and Jean Patou, allowed him to turn fashion on its head, challenging such received notions of dress and society as where underwear belongs, that religious garb was a sacred cow, and that basics were — well, basic.
高缇耶非凡的技术能力和对制作衣服的理解，以及他在皮尔·卡丹(Pierre Cardin)和让·巴杜(Jean Patou)的工作室学来的技巧，让他可以彻底改变时尚潮流，挑战服装和社会的即成概念，诸如内衣的穿法，宗教服装神圣不可触碰的观念，以及基本款服装就是……基本的。
But such ideas, worked through as completely and elegantly as they were on his runways, have not appeared in a very long time. Instead we got gimmicky guest appearances by paparazzi magnets like the stripper Dita Von Teese and the drag performer Conchita Wurst, this year's Eurovision winner.
这些观念虽然曾在他的秀台上得以完整与优雅的体现，却很久没有出现了。相反，他让脱衣舞娘蒂塔·冯·提斯(Dita Von Teese)和今年Eurovision的获奖者、异装演员肯奇塔·沃斯特(Conchita Wurst)这些八卦小报的宠儿们做奇怪的客串亮相。
So, whether closing his ready-to-wear business was Mr. Gaultier's idea or not — Ralph Toledano, head of the Puig fashion division, said it was the designer's decision, and given that Puig owns both Paco Rabanne and Nina Ricci, two houses that survived for decades on perfume alone before being restarted as ready-to-wear brands, you can understand why they might think this O.K. — the fact is, in taking himself off the schedule, Mr. Gaultier is putting the issue on the table.
所以，不管关掉成衣公司是不是高缇耶本人的主意——普依格时装部门的主管拉尔夫·托勒达诺(Ralph Toledano)说这是高缇耶自己的主意，普依格还拥有帕高·拉巴纳(Paco Rabanne)和莲娜丽兹(Nina Ricci)这两个品牌，它们都是在香水界生存了几十年后转为成衣品牌的，所以你可以理解，为什么普依格觉得高缇耶关掉公司也不要紧——事实就是，通过退出成衣界，高缇耶把问题摆在了桌面上。
And for the first time, it is not there because of a crisis like John Galliano's implosion at Dior in 2011 or Alexander McQueen's suicide in 2010, occasions that caused momentary soul-searching in the industry, but because of a conscious, articulated decision.
这一次的事不像2011年约翰·加利亚诺(John Galliano)在迪奥期间搞出的危机，或是2010年亚历山大·麦昆(Alexander McQueen)的自杀，那些事件在业界引起过片刻的深思， 高缇耶的放弃是出于深思熟虑，这在业界还是第一次。
The question now is whether the step back from ready-to-wear will make any obvious difference. If Mr. Gaultier can retrieve the magic of his earlier years in his couture shows — which once upon a time transformed my understanding of how clothes could transcend their antecedents (a couture fitting that involved a long evening dress that began in the form of a knit French marinière, but ended in gently wafting ostrich feathers is forever imprinted on my mind) — then the fashion world, which loves nothing more than rediscovering genius (or should I say "Genius!") will once again hold him up as an example. Perhaps even one worth following.
如今的问题是，他离开成衣界是否会造成显著的改变。如果高缇耶可以重新得到他早年那些定制时装秀上的魔法——那些时装秀曾经改变了我对时装可以如何超越先例的理解（比如有这样一套定制服装，包括一件晚礼服，上身是针织的法式蓝白条纹，裙摆是飘飘荡荡的鸵鸟毛，它深深铭刻在我的心中）——时装界最喜欢的就是回归的天才（我是不是应该说“天才！”），那么他一旦归来，是否又会被树为典范呢？或许这也值得关注。
If it doesn't, of course, then as is its wont, fashion will blink, and move on.
当然，如果他不能再找回那些魔法，时装界也会像它一贯以来的那样，眨眨眼睛，继续往前走。
We will have to wait until next January to find out which situation proves true. But in the meantime, one thing is sure: come his spring swan song this week, Mr. Gaultier's show will once again be the one to see. Mr. Toledano says they have already been getting urgent phone calls from all over the world demanding tickets.
我们会等到明年一月，来看看究竟是哪种情况。但是与此同时，有一件事是确定的：这个星期，来看他的春夏季天鹅之歌吧。高缇耶的走秀值得一看。托勒达诺说，全世界想要票的人都忙着给他打电话。
Bring your elbow pads, and get ready to push.
戴上护肘，准备去抢票吧。
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