X marked spot at Jean Paul Gaultier's France show

PARIS (AP) — The alphabet's most suggestive letter — X — marked the spot in a rollicking, theatrical runway show Saturday by Jean Paul Gaultier that acted out the French designer's fetishistic impulses.

The man who gave the world Madonna's conical bra took his exploration of fetishism one step further with the winter 2010 ready-to-wear show, which ended with two models tearing at one another's hair while rolling around in a mud bath.

It took a dominatrix, clad in black satin and brandishing a whip, to separate the two. They limped down the catwalk, their faces smeared, their hair disheveled and their looks lost beneath a thick layer of mud.

But it's a safe bet that whatever it was they were wearing bore a letter X. Nearly every piece in the collection — from slinky cocktail dresses to menswear suits to fur coats — bore at least one.

Some were bold strokes, like the purple paneling that crisscrossed the bust of an army drab military-cut suit. Other Xs were more subtle, worked into the fishnet mesh panels on a suggestive sheath dress which, given the choice between concealing and revealing, couldn't make up its mind.

The letter X "is about fetishism, it's about desire, its about lots of things," Gaultier said with an impish grin.

He borrowed from the dominatrix's wardrobe, sending out thigh-high leather boots, black masks and lavish fur coats worn with little underneath. Some models wore leather hoods that stretched over their heads like a second skin and were outfitted with mesh paneling over their eyes.

Outside Gaultier's headquarters, where his raucous runway shows are held, it was no less dramatic: Dozens of animal rights protesters carrying signs with graphic photos of skinned animals shouted "Gaultier, assassin!"

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

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