Jean Paul Gaultier and Romance is Born at the NGV

 

I treated myself to a day in the city last week, window-shopping myself steadily from the station at Melbourne Central to the National Art Gallery of Victoria.  On the way, I discovered that some sort of sea monster had taken over the Arts Centre,   

 

 

 

but I bravely forged on, desperate to see the exhibition of Jean Paul Gaultier's fashion work, "The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk".

 

Unlike some of my French friends, I have long had a fondness for Jean Paul Gaultier, having caught some of his Eurotrash episodes on television, and seen some of his clothing in magazines.  The exhibition was not disappointing in terms of fashion, but I was extremely impressed by him as an artist.  He really is amazingly talented.

Firstly, the models were fantastic.  Many of them were custom designed and used audio-visual projections of live faces and real voices which made them fascinating to watch.  They moved so realistically, yet they were really uncanny and strange too.  Marvelous!

 

The clothes and accessories were equally fascinating and I can understand why one viewer I talked to had been there for 4 hours.  This dress, for instance incorporated toile de jouy fabric, lace and crochet.

 

 

 

and the motifs were repeated in other, very different, pieces:

 

 

 

 

There were other repeating motifs which make his work so recognizable.  His famous conical brassieres, his corsets and his lacings appeared in different forms:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interestingly, the effect is not one of painful bondage or feminine subjugation, but of humour, as is evidenced by the bra detail on the elbow of this sleeve

 

 

and a triumphing of the female form.  I was fascinated by the endless, imaginative versions of the same theme, and the sheer artistry of his interpretations.

 

Images of skulls reoccured,

 

 

 

 as did tattoos.  Surprisingly, they do not look incongruous on the haute couture clothing:

 One of my favourite details was in this dress:

 

It incorporated details of film celluloid:

I was also mesmerised by the influences of other cultures on his work. These details, influenced by African art made me smile:

as did this Scottish influence:  

and this Native American influence:

 

 

This dress looked like it was made from leopard skin from afar, but when I got closer, I discovered it was made of beads and sequins:

 

 

Although a lot of the peices can be exaggerated, like this knitted dress:

 

 A lot of the pieces are relatively conservative:

 

 

However, in all, the decorative details are pieces of multimedia art in themselves:

 

And even the preparatory sketches are pieces of art:

 

 

On the way out, I popped into the Romance is Born exhibition and workshop for children.  I must bring the kids here.  There is plenty for me to see like this wallpaper
 

 and painting

 

 

by Del Kathryn Barton, but there is lots for them to do too.  Looks like another trip to the NGV is on the books.