The Fashion world Of Jean Paul Gaultier: From The Sidewalk To The Catwalk.

This summer, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has been presenting; The Fashion world Of Jean Paul Gaultier: From The Sidewalk To The Catwalk. "From the street to the stars, the trip is magical" said Agence France Presse, and thats exactly how i felt being in there.

For 35 years and 150 collections, Gaultier has delighted, shocked, and inspired the world with his imaginative and eccentric creations. The exhibition is divided into several thematic rooms that display his work. This Exhibition, Which Gaultier considers his "biggest show ever", is not just about his garment collections, it also has many videos, some of them were previously unreleased, as well as many many never-before-exhibited prints from the greatest names of fashion and photography. 

The first "room" is The Odyssey Of Jean Paul Gaultier, is mainly serving as an introduction to his work. It highlights 3 main subjects that are commonly seen in his collection: sailors, mermaids and virgins. 

After that comes a room called The Boudoir, which displays some of his intimate iconic pieces - Madonna's conned bra is one of the pieces displayed. Gaultier doesn't believe in the myth of weaker sex. His grandmother played an important role in his upbringing, as she was the first to introduce him to the world of fashion.  At a young age, fascinated by the charm of corsets, he dug out of his grandmothers closet some of her 1940's waist cinchers and started creating new classics. He used lingerie, cages and corsets to symbolize sexual freedom and female empowerment.  

Skin Deep is the room that came across after that. This room mainly focuses on his fascination with skin. He thought of materials as "second skin." "Except for medieval codpieces and the bra, garments have never had gender" said Gaultier. He plays around that concept, as he has a man mannequin wearing a cock feather corset with a tulle train, and another man mannequin wearing a suit with a skirt like trousers.

 After this extravagant room, the Punk Cancan shows Gaultier's inspiration from that street next to home. The garments are worn by mannequins on a moving catwalk, as it expresses that chic Parisian style and the rebel punks of London. 

I then moved on to The Urban Jungle. As ethnicity is a huge deal to Gaultier, this room displays pieces inspired by  African, Chinese, Indian, Arab and Russian cultures. In his garments, he erases boundaries that are set by our culture or environment and portrays what we call "traditions" with a phenomenal edge. 

Finally the last room in the exhibit is Metropolis. Pop culture has always been an important influence to Gaultier, as he never went to fashion school and used television and magazines as learning tools. So this room displays his futuristic looks, and costumes that were used for movies, and album covers. In addition costumes that were worn by Madonna and Kylie Minogue. 

I personally recommend any person to go see this exhibition, wether you are into fashion or not. as long as you appreciate good art, this is a must see.