Jean Paul Gaultier gets back into furniture

After his collaboration with US retail chain Target, French fashion enfant terrible, Jean Paul Gaultier is looking into other ways of widening his reach, teaming up with upscale furniture brand Roche Bobois.

According to Women's Wear Daily, the designer plans to unveil the collection over the coming months.

It is also Roche Bobois who sponsored Gaultier's refurbishing of the Elle Decoration suite unveiled this week, an apartment in the architecture museum in Paris, which was previously relooked by the likes of Maison Martin Margiela or Christian Lacroix.

Gaultier already designed furniture in the early 1990s, when he partnered with French furniture maker, VIA. His new range comes as part of a trend of fashion designers branching out into interiors: for Diesel, it is part of its Successful Living, Diane von Furstenberg announced a home collection for 2011, and Vivienne Westwood launched wallpaper, for instance.

The Elle Decoration suite, which was fitted out in JPG's signature nautical stripes, can be visited at the Palais Chaillot from May 8. Visit http://www.citechaillot.fr for more information.