BY INGRID MIDA
The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk is an eclectic, witty, and sometimes subversive trip through thirty-five years of work by the designer known as the “enfant terrible” of fashion. At the Dallas Museum of Art from November 13 through February 12, 2012, this comprehensive survey includes Gaultier’s creations for the runway, film and stage, as well as sketches, film and video clips, art and fashion photography. Even his infamous Ben Hur chair for Roche Bobois, a chariot-inspired chair with wheels in aluminum and velvet is included.
L’enfant terrible: Jean Paul Gaultier
©Patrice Stable/Jean Paul Gaultier
Countryside babes: Belles des champs collection, women’s
prêt-a-porter spring/summer 2006.
©Photo Patrice Stable/Jean Paul Gaultier
First collection: Outfit from prêt-à-porter spring/summer 1977, shown at thirtieth anniversary retrospective.
© Emil Larsson
Designer body armor: Corset worn by Madonna on the Blond Ambition World Tour, 1990.
In the exhibition, thirty mannequins talk, sing, blink and look away, as videos are projected onto sculpted masks based on real people including Gaultier himself. The mannequins say poetic and playful statements like “I love to be beautiful by myself” and “I am the woman I want to be.” Gaultier described the animated mannequins—developed specially for the show—as being “somewhat like a dream—it is very, very alive.”
Immaculate No. 3, Numero, 2007 by Miles Aldridge
and Jean Paul Gaultier (Tokyo) by Herb Ritts, 1990, courtesy of Abrams
The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier/ From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk
Gautier worked with curator Thierry-Maxime Loriot on the enormous and weighty 424-page book by that accompanies the exhibit (Abrams, $125); it includes an introduction by New York Times editor Suzy Menkes, over 500 illustrations and photographs and 50 exclusive interviews with Gaultier’s colleagues, mentors and muses. Gaultier was sentimental and humorous about making the book: “The book is fantastic—and I will not make another one.”
The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk will travel to San Francisco (March 24-August 19, 2012), Madrid, Rotterdam and Stockholm.
© Jean-Marie Leroy El Deseo D.A. S.L.
On the big screen: Gaultier designed Victoria Abril’s wardrobe in Kika, Pedro Almodóvar’s fashion-conscious 1993 satire.
©Patrice Stable/Jean Paul Gaultier
Feathers, fox and spangles: Ensemble from Gaultier’s most recent men’s haute couture collection, added specially for Dallas.
San Franciso / Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Madrid / Fundacion Mapfre – Instituto de Cultura, Madrid
