When I travel I always like to soak up a little culture and inspiration. It made sense that since I was in San Francisco I should visit the de Young Museum to see the Jean Paul Gaultier Exhibit. For those of you who don’t know who he is, Jean Paul Gaultier is a French haute couture fashion designer who has made some amazing inroads with major music and entertainment celebrities of our time.  According to Wikipedia, Gaultier was never formally trained as a designer, but just started sending sketches to famous couture stylists like Pierre Cardin, who was impressed by his talent and hired him as an assistant in 1970.  Gaultier released his first individual collection in 1976. Many of Gaultier’s following collections have been based on street wear, focusing on popular culture, whereas others, particularly his Haute Couture collections, are very formal yet at the same time unusual and playful.

Madonna's Blonde Amition Tour

Although most people found his designs decadent at the  time, there were prominent fashion editors, who were seduced by his creativity and immediately noticed his mastery of tailoring.  During the 90′s he produced sculptured costumes for Madonna, starting with her infamous cone bra for her Blond Ambition Tour, and designed the wardrobe for her 2006 Confessions Tour. In fact, as part of the Exhibit, the public are treated to viewing the original conceptual drawings for Madonna’s tour wardrobe.

Gaultier caused shock by using unconventional models for his exhibitions, like older men and full-figured women, pierced and heavily tattooed models, and by playing with traditional gender roles in the shows. This earned him both criticism and enormous popularity.

Gaultier has designed the wardrobe for many motion pictures, including Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element. He currently designs for three collections: his own couture and ready-to-wear lines, for both men and women.

He is one of the few couture fashion designers to mix fashion so enigmatically with music, even releasing a dance single titled “How To Do That” on Fontana records — later becoming a “single title” remix album “Aow Tou Dou Zat” on Mercury records.

Gaultier has designed a number of the costumes and outfits worn by rocker Marilyn Manson,including the outfits for Manson’s Golden Age of Grotesque album.  He has also designed the costumes for pop artist, Kylie Minogue’s, international KYLIEX 2008 tour.

What was very apparent to me as I toured the Exhibit was that Jean Paul seemed to have an interesting obsession with religion. Some of the photos here in this article show detailed religious images and icons woven directly into his fashion designs.

Upon entering the Exhibit you hear voices and realize that animated faces are projected onto the mannequins accompanied by audio. There are mannequins that appear to be singing and others delivering a speech on a variety of topics. The models themselves appear lifelike, including one in the image of Jean Paul Gaultier himself.  It’s quite compelling.

Towards the end of the Exhibit, there is a platform filled with mannequins smoothly floating across the room as though part of a current fashion show. I can’t help but wonder how much input Jean Paul had into how his fashions were exhibited. I would guess that he was an integral part of the planning given his penchant for creativity and desire to think outside of the box.

It took us the greater part of an afternoon to make our way through the entire Exhibit. You didn’t want to miss a single detail. This is an amazing designer commenting on our time through his fashion and impacting our culture. Every single piece makes a statement.

What I loved best was how he mixed the various cultures together without planting the design firmly in any single one. I can relate to this since this is something I do in my music. Most creative people are not interested in being put in a box with a single label on it.  Our job is to go out into the world, and present what we have to say to be taken at face value. At the end of the day, not everyone will like what you do, or even agree with it….. but you have a right to your own beliefs, style and opinion.

My favourites:

More from the Exhibit:

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I’d love to hear what you think of this fashion designer and which outfits are your favourites?! Feel free to share your comments below.

I’d also challenge you to identify some of the materials Jean Paul Gaultier has used in creating some of the pieces viewable in this article.