The enfant terrible of the fashion scene, Jean Paul Gaultier is known for sailor stripes, bare skin and gender games. His creations are now on show in Munich.
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Now in Munich: The fashion world of Jean Paul Gaultier
After four years on tour, including fashion capital Paris, an exhibition featuring the creations of Jean Paul Gaultier has arrived in Munich. Here are highlights in the career of the enfant terrible of French fashion.
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If it weren't for the models...
Fashion is about desire, designer Jean Paul Gaultier once said. And that's something he knows how to play with: His imaginative creations aren't made for the office or the playground, but for the catwalk. "I'd never have gone into fashion if it weren't for the models," Gaultier confessed. An exhibition of his work is now on show for the last time - at the Kunsthalle Munich.
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Special edition
The show recently visited the historic Grand Palais in Paris, and drew more than 420,000 visitors. There, he pulled out a few special gems from his collection, including this black tulle dress. It was modeled in 2014 by Eurovision Song Contest winner Conchita Wurst, a transvestite entertainer from Austria.
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Taking a chance
Gaultier had no formal training as a fashion designer, but he knew what he wanted. He boldly sent sketches to the most prestigious fashion labels in Paris, his home city - and it worked. Pierre Cardin took him on as an assistant in 1970, marking the beginning of his glamorous career. Six years later, Gaultier introduced the first collection of his own.
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Ahoy!
Every big designer has a trademark. For Gaultier, it was stripes - particularly striped sailor shirts, as worn here by photographers Pierres and Gilles at the opening of the exhibition. Gaultier was inspired by Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "Querelle" (1982), a cult movie in the gay scene about a handsome and devious Belgian sailor. Sailor outfits became a staple in Gaultier's collections.
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Enfant terrible
Even among the extravagant fashion crowd, Gaultier is considered over-the-top. He soaks up influences from art, music, film, and pop culture and transforms them into wearable creations. The Paris retrospective focuses on three decades of fashion history, including the punk era (pictured). Gaultier resisted the idea of a retrospective at first: Now 63, he was much too young.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Ian Langsdon
Gender game
These haute-couture gowns reveal Gaultier's both flashy and elegant sides. He was the first to send androgynous models onto the catwalk and design scoop necks and skirts for men. He said he's always appreciated beauty that is unique. "You shouldn't hide behind fashion, but show yourself."
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Being different
For a designer who creatively plays with color and material, parrot feathers are the perfect inspiration. As a child, Gaultier often spent time in his grandmother's beauty salon and observed everything that can be done with makeup. He works not only with ultra slender models, but also with older women and even overweight girls with piercings.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/I. Langsdon
On stage
Gaultier's daring designs came to represent the radical liberation of provocative femininity. Some of these examples are on show in Paris. The designer has created concert wear for top celebrities like Beyoncé and Madonna. Pictured here is the bullet bra Madonna wore during her 1990 "Blond Ambition" tour, which turned heads even in the boundary-breaking world of pop music.
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The art of fashion
The exhibition, entitled "Jean Paul Gaultier - From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk," has already been a huge success at its other locations. In addition to outfits, Gaultier's sketches, personal photos and drawings are also on display, along with video clips outlining his path to fame.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Ian Langsdon
Multifaceted man
Jean Paul Gaultier also has a special relationship to film. In 2012 he was in the jury (pictured) at the Cannes Film Festival. He said he was particularly inspired by directors like Pedro Aldovar and Luc Besson. "I work with artists, but I'm not one," he once said. The show in Munich, which runs through February 14, 2016, will likely prove the contrary.
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What is fashion? And is stylish the same thing as beautiful? When it comes to Jean Paul Gaultier's designs, one thing is for sure: They're eccentric. Being different is his goal and he's clearly successful at achieving it.
The French fashion designer regularly works with models that don't necessarily fulfill the standard ideal of beauty - like Gossip's plump lead singer Beth Ditto.
And he doesn't just create clothing for women. Jean Paul Gaultier was the first fashion designer to work with androgynous models like Tanel Bedrossiantz. He's also brought Austria's 2014 Eurovision Song Contest winner Conchita Wurst onto the catwalk.
Born in 1952 in a suburb of Paris, Jean Paul Gaultier finds inspiration in the world around him - from artists and filmmakers, from punks and other cultures. He also loves the ocean and many of the characters he creates for the catwalk have a marine flair. He's known for sailor outfits, nymph gowns and mermaids. In 1997, he famously organized the longest kiss for commercial purposes between model Kristen McMenamy and a sailor.
Gaultier's stripes and less wearable works
Sailors' stripes are Gaultier's trademark and certainly suitable for everyday wear beyond the fashion shows of Paris. That can't be said of his newer works, however. But wearability isn't necessarily his aim. Instead, he uses the human body as a palette for expression, questioning not only gender roles but also nudity and eroticism.
He deliberately breaks the boundaries between the aesthetic norms of haute couture and prêt-à-porter.
Gaultier has designed pieces made of latex, feathers and frills, and isn't afraid of showing lots of naked skin. The 1980s punk scene finds its way into his works, and he also has a thing for corsets. Madonna wore his most famous corset during her "Blond Ambition" tour in 1990.
Gaultier's designer pieces are iconic. Since many are one-of-a-kind, the exhibition at the Kunsthalle Munich - organized together with the Maison Jean Paul Gaultier - relies mainly on loans from stars like Madonna and Kylie Minogue.
Some 160 of Jean Paul Gaultier's creations spanning from the early 1970s to the present can be seen through February 14, 2016, in the Kunsthalle Munich. The show "Jean Paul Gaultier - From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk" has been touring for the past four years and Munich is its final stop.