Some people live like they have all the fun in the world. Jean Paul Gaultier, for example. Think about it: playing dress-up with Madonna and Kylie and doing runway and blending perfumes – and always doing everything with that impish, manic charm and unbridled enthusiasm that makes Gaultier the veritable personification of “joie de vivre.”
After its sold-out opening run in Montreal and its subsequent global tour, The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier has returned to North America and is currently in exhibition in Brooklyn at The Brooklyn Museum.
The critically acclaimed multimedia retrospective of Gaultier’s life and work, the first focusing solely on the French couturier, is a stunning celebration of Gaultier’s creative genius, technical inventiveness, and humanist vision. More than thirty animated mannequins provide commentary, alongside extensive fashion photography and numerous examples of Gaultier’s artistic collaborations with music and film legends.
Paolo Roversi (Italian, b. 1947). Tanel Bedrossiantz, 1992. Digital print, 15 x 12 in. (38.3 x 30.8 cm). Jean Paul Gaultier’s “Barbès” women’s ready-to-wear fall-winter collection of 1984–85. © Paolo Roversi
Of course, there’s no excuse for missing this exhibition. That said, the next best thing (and a perfect complement to one’s own visit) is the magnificent monograph, The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk.
Edited by Thierry-Maxime Loriot (curator of the original Montreal exhibition) and published by Montreal’s Museum of Fine Arts in collaboration with Abrams Books, the stunning, oversize hardcover book is an objet d’art in its own right.
Presented in a slipcase, with a cover incorporating the work of Herb Ritts among others, the tome features over 550 illustrations and photographs (many of them previously unpublished). The 424-page catalogue also includes archival documents and more than fifty interviews with Gaultier’s muses and colleagues, as well as an essay by Suzy Menkes, and a timeline of Gaultier’s career that examines Gaultier’s interactions with the worlds of film, dance, and music.
Enter into Jean Paul Gaultier’s world with one of the most deluxe monographs of the decade. You’ll be smiling the entire time.
