While exiting the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit, I asked my roommate one word she thought described the collection. She responded with the exact same description that I was thinking: weird. Although I thought his collection was bizarre, it was in a unique and inspiring way. The collection features 6 rooms, each with a specific theme. As I meandered through the exhibit, the garments went from ridiculous to unbelievable, in a good way.
His attention to detail, use of eclectic colors, and layers upon layers of fabric were some of my favorite parts of the exhibit. I loved how he pushed so many boundaries in order to be different; especially erasing the lines between sexes. Some of the information cards about the particular outfit said how long Jean Paul Gaultier took to finish the look; my favorite leopard dress took him 1006 hours to complete, but it was definitely worth the intensive labor. I loved the actual leopard’s head immersed from the model’s breasts as if they were about to attack. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall while he designed these ensembles to witness Jean Paul Gaultier’s thought process in his creations.
This collection was inspired from past music cultures, including as pop and rock, as well as the world-renowned celebrities influencing those eras, such as Lady Gaga and Madonna. In addition to the clothing, the collection explored the avant-garde culture through sketches, video clips from movies, runway shows, and television interviews, photography, and talking mannequins.
Jean Paul Gaultier unquestionably changed my mind that an outfit is not only fabric and embellishments, but also each outfit embodies its own story. Even though I am not a die-hard fashionista, I was still absolutely memorized by the works of art.
