On Thursday, we got a sneak peek at the new de Young exhibition featuring the works of fashion icon Jean Paul Gaultier. The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk celebrates the French designer, featuring 140 ensembles from his 35 year career that has touched not only the fashion and haute couture worlds, but cinema, popular music and the arts.
But don’t expect a refined retrospective like you saw in last year’s Balenciaga exhibit. The Gaultier show not only features a modern fashion icon, but it also utilizes multimedia and innovative techniques in the installation and display of his intricate designs.
The most notable is the projection of live video faces onto the faces of some of the mannequins. It makes for an eerie effect, amazingly lifelike as you move through the exhibition. Their eyes blink, mouths move – almost like they are living and breathing live models on the catwalk.
In another part of the exhibition, the mannequins revolve on small pedestals that rotate around the oval catwalk – as if you were watching the models move down the runway. Perfectly placed lighting washes up each garment as it turns the corner.
The show is comprised of six themed sections that take the visitor through the various creative phases of Gaultier’s career. His signature blue and white designs are featured (one of them featuring the designer’s face and voice), as well as a “Boudoir” theme exploring Gaultier’s fascination with lingerie that was made most famous by the pointy bustier worn during Madonna’s 1990 Blonde Ambition tour.
Equality, diversity and perversity have been Gaultier’s mantras during his fashion career, and they are all on display in the exhibition. The “Skin Deep” gallery features garments inspired by themes of bondage and body art, including one design that looks like the muscles of the human body.
The “Urban Jungle” gallery features a diverse medley of influences ranging from Frida Kahlo to Hassidic Jews. The final “Metropolis” themed gallery highlights Gaultier’s work in film (The Fifth Element, Pedro Almodovar), and his relationship with pop (and fashion) icons like Kylie Minoque and Tina Turner.
In addition to seeing his beautiful fashion, you also experience the breadth of Gaultier’s design aesthetic across a variety of mediums be it sketches, stage costumes, film clips, dance performances and of course, haute couture. He plays with conventional gender stereotypes, dressing men and women alike in some collections, for what he playfully refers to as “a wardrobe for two”.
The show also mixes in fashion photography from some of Gaultier’s renowned contemporaries including Andy Warhol, Steven Meisel and David LaChapelle.
Gaultier was on hand for the press preview on Thursday, delighting the media with stories of his early visits to San Francisco, and of dressing up his childhood teddy bear with his earliest fashion creations – including an early version of the cone bra Madonna would later make famous.
The designer is in town through the weekend and on Saturday, he’ll sit for a Q&A with Suzy Menkes, fashion editor for the International Herald Tribune. The event is already sold out, but you can watch it streamed live from the de Young’s website beginning at 11am.
The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk opens Saturday at the de Young Museum, and runs through August 19.
The museum is the exclusive west coast venue for the exhibition, and during its stay in Dallas, was consistently sold out. After seeing this beautiful, innovative and fun show, we can understand why. Don’t miss it!
Sarah B.
The famous bustier worn by Madonna on her Blonde Ambition tour
A message left by Jean Paul Gaultier on the wall of the exhibition
One Comment
Comments are closed.