I was still working when Jean-Paul Gaultier( 1952-) launched his first perfume. A bottle of a women’s bust tightly fit into a corset. Madonna? Then to go even further, he used a tin box for the outer packaging rather than a refined cardboard box.
I guess the profession just didn’t know which way to look. His fashion was well over the top but now perfumes…..then came the male perfume and all the eccentricities that move in this world. That all happened as I seem to remember in 1991 but I could be out by a couple of years, months or days. It doesn’t matter. This man was going to rock the industry…..and he did. He is perhaps one of the most important fashion designers of recent decades but the question is, is he a fashion designer or an artist?
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| Paco Rabanne, plastic and metal dress: 1969 |
He’s a self taught man and took refuge when growing up in his grandmother’s beauty salon. He loved designing, he loved costumes so it’s not surprising that before long he was working in the industry. It was Pierre Cardin who offered him his first job when he was 18. At the time I was working with Paco Rabane. Paco did not hide his feelings about Pierre Cardin at all and when Gaultier came onto the scene, he probably knew that the years of shocking a public with chains, plastics, metals and joints in his dresses, were over.
Someone even « more outrageous» had arrived on the scene.
I wasn’t prepared for the shock of this exhibition. It has already traveled around the world and in fact a very close friend in Melbourne told me that she had seen it and was VERY impressed. An Australian telling me about an exhibition which was not yet on in Paris....!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL9LWAQYUI74sRfSzYmV9EMJhj7K52m25D&v=suUXZkwKs_Y
The first time that such a large selection of his work between 1971 and 2015 was to be be displayed. The first gallery didn’t impress at all but then walking into a mauve atmosphere with models blinking at me, smiling, turning their eyes and Gaultier himself talking about his career and founding those myths of his universe.
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| Believe you me, he was talking..... |
All done superbly through mannequins that looked as real as you as I do - at first glance. The sailor character, siren or perhaps you would prefer mermaids. Stripes and the striped jersey which became his emblem. He was right.
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| A siren who smiled |
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| he's smiling too |
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| lips moving all the time |
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| eyes closed |
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| then she closed them again |
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| their eyes are closed |
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| still closed |
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| and now open |
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| the top reflection is marvelous |
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| thoughtful young lady |
IS right. Stripes will never go out of fashion - a male friend of 50 years said to me not so long ago when I was looking at a striped sweater « Oh Maggie not another one. You were wearing stripes at 13 ». (that was 60 years back). I remember that sweater. I could wear today.
Those mannequins fascinated me. There they were in every gallery. Smiling down at us. Sometimes all the eyes were closed and a second later all the eyes were open. I was mesmerized and only then would my gaze fall onto the clothes themselves.
The British or Scot punks.
The Men in skirts
Men? Or perhaps they were androgynous?
Flamenco...
The legend of the corset
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| and what a train.... |
I backtracked……this is not couture….this is art. Picture after picture of clothing that was to be shown off to the world….captivate, seduce like Madonna in corsets and pointed breasts which scandalize the spectator…… « no, I could not wear that » The question is, who could? I looked and looked closely at models again. Was there anything that I could have worn ? Gaultier said he dresses for the fat the thin, the tall and the short. He even chose models in each one of those categories.
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| As seen on the screen |
I fall into one of them too but would I have been game enough to wear such an outfit, even if it was only for an evening?
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| I could wear the beret |
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| A beautiful sculpture |
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| Look at the bust |
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| you see film |
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| I could certanly wear the jumper |
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| A couple? |
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| Some dress |
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| Look at that detail |
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| A back view |
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| You have to be tall and very slender |
Then some other artists added to this glory
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| Pierre and Gilles: Lady with snakes |
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| Immaculé N° 3 |
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| Nicolas Tuel -Tanel Bedrossiantz |
Of course, all fashion shows end with the Bride
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| Certainly original..... |
This was not fashion, this was a spectacular art form and so much more interesting than many of the exhibitions I have seen in recent years. I chose not to give titles to each dress, costume or......next to what you see, they were banals.....
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