The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA)

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“The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier” will be on view at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA), from November 13, 2001 to February 12, 2012, as this first multimedia exhibition of one of the world’s most celebrated couturiers represents the DMA’s first foray into the art of contemporary fashion.

New exhibition additions premiering in Dallas include a scene-stealing Corcirico ensemble for men featuring black fox, feathers and lamé that graced the runway of JPG’s most recent Haute Couture Fall Winter 2011/2012 collection, marking the first time Gaultier has added menswear to his couture line.

November is also the pub. date for the 424-page exhibition catalogue (English-version), which features interviews with Gaultier friends, colleagues, and muses including Madonna, Pedro Almodóvar, Carla Bruni Sarkozy, Catherine Deneuve, Carine Roitfeld, Boy George, Marion Cotillard, Pierre et Gilles, Helen Mirren, Dita Von Teese, Tom Ford, and Victoria Abril, among others.

Organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the highly-acclaimed exhibition explores how Gaultier’s provocative, innovative, and transformative design aesthetic has paved a new way to both wear and look at fashion.
For over 35 years, Jean Paul Gaultier has commanded the runway with unconventional collections for women and men ranging in subjects from Dada to The Christo Effect, Chic Rabbis to Madonnas, and Tattoos to Trompe l’oeil. Incorporating a host of international cultural references, both high and low, familiar and taboo, his vision continues to promote a strong social message that empowers women and men to embrace their sexuality and individuality.

Stunning stage outfits worn by Madonna (including two of the now-iconic cone bras worn during the 1990 Blond Ambition Tour), and Kylie Minogue are just a few of the 130 tour-de-force couture and ready-to-wear ensembles for men and women spanning from 1976 to 2011 on view.

According to Exhibition Curator and Catalogue Editor, Thierry-Maxime Loriot, “When you see the craftsmanship and all the work and how imaginative Gaultier is, I consider him a real artist. He designed more than 150 collections for himself, 15 for Hermès, countless collaborations with movie directors from Peter Greenaway to Luc Besson, dance choreographers, pop stars and all the videos he collaborated on, no other designer has ever achieved that much, but what is most fascinating is that it is always innovative, always new, never boring, which is exceptional. He initiates the trends rather than following them, which explains why he is still here after 35 years.” Adds exhibition catalogue contributor Suzy Menkes, Fashion Critic and Editor at the International Herald Tribune, “He is not just a fashion designer, he has created kind of modern art that should be in a museum.”

Highlighting Gaultier’s fondness for making mischief, automated, like-like mannequins dressed as sailors and sirens, punks and virgins/saints (among his favorites themes and including one of Gaultier, pictured below) randomly sing, chant, and comment throughout the exhibition.

Excerpts from films, concerts, videos, dance performances further bring to light JPG’s special connections with the worlds of art, music, film, and dance that form his eclectic, multidisciplinary, and global creative vision. Fashion photography is also a major focus thanks to loans of many never-before seen prints from renowned photographers and contemporary artists including Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, David LaChapelle, Richard Avedon, Mario Testino, Steven Meisel, and Steven Klein, among others.

Described by the designer as, “my biggest show ever….my life,” the roughly 500 works comprising the exhibition distinctively illustrate the technical virtuosity, unbridled joie de vivre, and daring flare that can only be Gaultier.

collection Women’s prêt-à-porter spring/summer 2006 © Patrice Stable/Jean Paul Gaultier »] collection, La Mariée dress Haute couture spring/summer 2005 © P. Stable/Jean Paul Gaultier »]