The first ever retrospective dedicated to the designs of world-renowned French couturier Jean Paul Gaultier will be unveiled at The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in June 2011, after which the exhibit will travel to the US.
The Fashion World of Jean-Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk will display more than one hundred ensembles, including couture creations, as well as original sketches and photographs by the designer spanning his 35 years in the fashion industry. The exhibit will be organized into five main themes that inspired Gaultier’s collections: Paris, Fusions, Multi-Gender, Eurotrash/X-rated and Metropolis. In addition, films for which Gaultier designed set costumes will also be shown, such as Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element, Pedro Almodovar’s Kika and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s La Cité des Enfants Perdus.
Gaultier, who showed his first ready-to-wear collection in 1976, has long held the reputation as the enfant terrible of the French fashion world. His unconventional designs, inspired by pop culture and street-wear, are a far cry from the more traditional and formal Paris couture houses. Gaultier is perhaps best-known for designing Madonna’s iconic cone-bra and bustier, which she wore for her 1990 Blond Ambition tour. He has also been known for inciting shock in the industry by enlisting unconventional models in his shows, like the plus-sized singer Beth Ditto (a UK size 28) of the band The Gossip, who walked his Spring/Summer 2011 runway show in Paris.
Nathalie Bondil, museum director and chief curator, told Women’s Wear Daily that what attracted her to Gaultier as a subject was his “open-minded vision of society, a crazy, sensitive, funny, sassy world in which everyone can assert his or her identity.”
The Fashion World of Jean-Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk is scheduled to be on display at the Canadian museum from June 17 to October 2, 2011 before traveling to the Dallas Museum of Art (November 13 to February 12, 2012) and the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco (March 24 to August 19, 2012).
Several designers, in addition to Gaultier, have had a retrospective touring exhibition of their work. In 2006, the Victoria and Albert Museum assembled more than 150 garments and accessories created by the iconoclastic and rebellious British designer Vivienne Westwood to pay tribute to her contributions to British fashion and punk culture (she famously clothed the Sex Pistols). The international tour kicked off at the Thailand Creative and Design Center in Bangkok followed by the de Young Museum in San Francisco