the Fashion Spot - 1983-1994 Jean Paul Gaultier's Costumes for “Le Défilé” Exhibit

**lucy92** · 30-03-2007

story and images from the NY times, photos by Stephane Sednaoui

Pas de Tous!
By ALIX BROWNE
The fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier has achieved pop-star status in France the way only fashion designers can achieve pop-star status in France. (Madonna? Isn’t she that singer who wore the conical Gaultier bra?) Last year, France’s No. 1 enfant terrible celebrated his 30th anniversary in the business. Yet weirdly enough, he has never had a major exhibition of his work there. Well, not counting the “Pain Couture” show at the Cartier Foundation in 2004, where all of the clothes were recreated from bread.
Recently, however, the Musée de la Mode et du Textile received a gift from Le Centre Chorégraphique National de La Rochelle in the form of an entire collection of costumes Gaultier designed for the choreographer Régine Chopinot, and last week the whole lot went on display. Gaultier collaborated with Chopinot from 1983 to 1994, producing more than a dozen works for the stage and video, and in some ways the exhibition, which will run through September, is even more satisfying and more fun — than any straight-up fashion retrospective could ever be. Many of the designer’s most original and provocative ideas are represented: the tartan kilts and striped sailor tops that also constitute his own personal uniform, the elaborately tattooed body suits, tailored pinstriped suits that sprout enormous tulle tutus, a suite of alarmingly anatomically correct corsets for both men and women. (What can you say? It was the ’80s.)
What is more, all of the costumes were beautifully turned out by the atelier de l’Opéra — as fine an haute couture operation as any fashion designer could wish for. Half of the exhibition is devoted to an early piece from 1985 called “Le Défilé,” a pas de deux between ballet and fashion in which fashion completely took the lead. This time the costumes were not inspired by the choreography, but rather the choreography was designed specifically for the costumes. “It was a completely free fashion show,” says Olivier Saillard, who curated the exhibition. It was even performed on a runway.