Living: The New Bad Boys of Fashion

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Gaultier, who admits readily enough that "I'm a rocker," is nevertheless adamant that his clothes are not meant to appeal to only a single age group. Just as his inspiration careens crazily from Dickens' London to today's King's Road, he wants his clothes worn by anyone who likes "playing with clothes, taking from them what interests you, no matter what the origins." In fact, as most store buyers know, a Gaultier collection is made up of about equal parts of eye-grabbing eccentricities and conventional ideas, "classics with different proportions. A young person won't put them together the same way as a 50-or 60-year-old."

On his 18th birthday, Gaultier landed a job with Cardin, for whom he designed a 1974 collection destined for the American market. He sets the same kind of creative atmosphere that he found at his former patron's, where "everything was permitted." Most of his small staff are just out of lycee and brimming with ideas; others are friends of long standing; none is over 32. Gaultier may be an iconoclast, but he has a deep and sometimes surprising respect for other designers. One would expect him to "adore" Vivienne Westwood, the earth mother of punk fashion. But Gaultier also "adores" Giorgio Armani and Jean Muir, and speaks with respect of the old master Yves Saint Laurent. He spends about 85% of his time working, and rides the Metro both to commute and to store up ideas.

Gaultier often refers to "the game of the clothes." If there is in fact such a recreation, then he and Sprouse have been instrumental in revising the recent rules of play. Acting cagey, Sprouse says he has "this whole new idea for fall." Gaultier's current collection suggests he can flout convention even while crazy. Natch-rally crazy. Yes, indeed. —By Jay Cocks.

Reported by Doric Denbigh/Paris and Elizabeth Rudulph/New York