I finally got a chance to visit the exhibit of the French designer Jean Paul Gaultier at the de Young Museum in San Francisco and it is terrific.
The eight rooms of the exhibit house 140 haute couture and pret-a-porter designs starting in the mid seventies and spanning thirty years.
Equally amazing to the garments are the 30 animated mannequins that talk, whistle, wink and sing.
This exhibit is memorable in so many ways...
and unfortunately it is leaving the de Young on August 19th.
Upon entering the exhibit you immediately see the stripes and nautical looks that I always associate with Jean Paul Gaultier. But the following rooms contain so much wit, workmanship and innovation that it is indescribable.
The designer never had any formal training but, Pierre Cardin saw his talent and hired him as an assistant.Suffice to say the designer is incredibly versatile and his ideas and topics are diverse, amusing and amazing ( when you say things in threes you just sound smarter LOL ).
Of course the other classic Gaultier is the conical corset made famous by Madonna on her 1990 Blonde Ambition tour. Apparently this look was popular with both women AND men and one of Gaultier's earliest looks. The exhibit even has his childhood teddy bear that he affixed these conical shapes to it's little torso.
And he was mad for plaid and punks.
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