Jean Paul Gaultier reflects on a life of fantastical fashion
Thankfully then, there are still some designers who revel in the pomp and spectacle of the fashion show of yesteryear. Long may they reign. And Jean Paul Gaultier – widely known as the “enfant terrible” of French fashion – is arguably one of the most theatrical of them all. For over 40 years, Gaultier has brought his renegade approach to fashion and devil-may-care attitude to catwalks, and this October that will culminate in Fashion Freak Show, a theatre show celebrating his life’s work.
Fittingly, the show will take place at the very location that inspired its beginnings: Paris’ iconic Folies Bergère, the cabaret hall that has been an institution of provocative Parisian entertainment since the 1870s – reaching the height of its fame during the Belle Époque and causing a scandal in 1926 when Josephine Baker danced in an out t consisting only of a string of wooden bananas. Gaultier remembers watching the Folies revue show on television as a child and being enamoured with the costumes and frivolity. “In every fashion show that I have presented from the very beginning of my career I have always put a bit of a ‘show’ in it,” Gaultier says. “It could be Edwige Belmore singing Sid Vicious’ version of ‘My Way’ in 1979, or Dita Von Teese doing a striptease at couture in 2010, but there would always be an element of a show. So I felt that the moment has come to do my own show, my own cabaret, my own musical.”
Set to an original score by Gaultier’s close friend Nile Rodgers, Fashion Freak Show will cover four decades of the designer’s life, from his childhood to his early career, his greatest fashion shows and, according to him, some of his wildest nights, including stories that have never before been committed to print, or any other medium. “It is things that I have experienced, seen and loved,” he says. Seminal moments in Gaultier’s career will be brought to life his collections offered an escape from the humdrum of daily life; there was a numinosity that few else could emulate and it quickly set Gaultier apart from his peers. An innovator, he was a pioneer of some of the trends taking hold today, turning what was worn on the streets into catwalk fodder and blurring the lines when it came to gender. His AW89/90 show featured women wearing suits and Poirot-esque moustaches, while his skirts for men trend reached its peak when David Beckham stepped out in that Gaultier sarong during the 1998 World Cup. And the underwear- as-outerwear trend that was everywhere last season? File beside Jean Paul Gaultier SS88.
The designer himself, though, is modest about his innovator status. “I can only talk for myself, and I always did what I thought was right for the times,” he says. “I never wanted to provoke because then it stops being a provocation. I think it’s the fact that I have always been free, that I never listened to the marketing people, and that I relied on my instinct and on what I saw in the society around me.
“For example, when I realised that my girlfriends started wearing lingerie again, after their mothers burned their bras, I decided to present my rst corset dress. But it was to show the strength of women and never to show submission. My friends wanted to be sexy but on their own terms.”
Now though, Gaultier agrees that fashion is in a state of flux. “We are in a moment of constant crises, and fashion needs to nd new ways to reinvent itself,” he says, also citing that our communal obsession with social media is 059 something that will be covered in Fashion Freak Show in a revealing scene titled “Vanity Fair”. But, while we undoubtedly live in very different times to the heyday of Gaultier’s fashion shows, when underground culture was just that and every facet of our lives wasn’t played out through Instagram, the designer isn’t lamenting the past – another reason why he has always been two steps ahead.
“Times have changed,” he says. “We are much less free in many ways, but in other ways much more so. I don’t think the spirit and freedom of the 80s is really going to come back, but there are always new generations doing interesting things, so I am sure that an underground culture will survive – it will just be different to what we were used to.
“And in Fashion Freak Show, I want to show difference. There is beauty to be found everywhere; it all depends on how one chooses to look at it. I’ve always loved freaks, weirdos, agitators and unexpected encounters.”
Fashion Freak Show opens at the Folies Bergère on 2 October 2018. This interview was taken from HUNGER 15’s #FantasyMeetsReality issue, which you can buy here.
