From June 17 to October 2, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) will present The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, the first exhibition devoted to the celebrated French couturier.
With no formal training, a young Gaultier began sending sketches to famous couturiers. Pierre Cardin was so impressed he hired Gaultier as an assistant in 1970, launching his ascent into the fashion world to become the enfant terrible of French fashion, eventually designing his first collection in 1976 and founding his own couture house in 1997.
The exhibition will feature approximately 120 ensembles, mainly from the designer’s couture collections, but also from his prêt-à-porter line, along with their accessories. Created between 1976 and 2010, many of these pieces have never before been exhibited.
Sketches, stage costumes, excerpts from films, runway shows, concerts, videos, dance performances and even television programs will illustrate the artistic collaborations that have characterized Gaultier’s world: filmmakers Pedro Almodóvar, Peter Greenaway, Luc Besson, Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet; contemporary dancers Angelin Preljocaj, Régine Chopinot and Maurice Béjart, not to mention the world of popular music including Madonna’s infamous cone bra.
Fashion photography is also a major focus of the exhibit, thanks to loans of, in many cases, never-before-seen prints from renowned photographers and contemporary artists such as Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Erwin Wurm, David LaChapelle, Richard Avedon, Mario Testino, Steven Meisel, Steven Klein, and Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.
The exhibition will travel to Dallas from November 9, 2011 to February 12, 2012, and to San Francisco from March 24 to August 12, 2012.