Gushing Over Gaultier [Gal About Town: Fashion and Travel at Your Fingertips]

San Francisco has a special place in my heart.  It has the romantic feel of New York City mixed with the casual, laid back feel of California. This combination makes San Fran a bit of a utopia for me, except, it’s still too darn cold. If it had the same weather as LA, I would definitely have been tempted to live there, but now that I’ve grown accustomed to sun and warmth, I am happy to visit the City by the Bay at least once or twice a year.  My husband and I never grow bored of the city, and are always discovering something new to do and somewhere new to see.

On this last trip we went to the city’s Carnavale festival, saw the Jean-Paul Gaultier exhibit at the de Young Museum, took a Noir-themed walking tour that focused on the life and writings of Dashiell Hammett, and took in the fireworks honoring the Golden Gate Bridge, among other fun little adventures that I will detail in upcoming blogs.

Being that this is a FASHION and TRAVEL blog, I would be remiss to not tell you all about the Jean-Paul Gaultier exhibit. Back when the E! Channel used to focus on fashion, I spent many hours of my youth watching their fashion runway telecasts. During fashion week I was glued to the television watching pieces of magnificent art walk down a little runway. Jean-Paul Gaultier’s fantastical and irreverent designs quickly became my favorite and greatly inspired my youth and the designer I am today.

The exhibit at the de Young was overwhelming to say the least.  There were six large galleries filled with Gaultier’s creations, sketches, videos, monologues, photographs, etc. And each of the galleries was absolutely packed with people. There was a decent line to get into the exhibit, and to get close to any of the garments took a lot of patience and determination. I’m sure part of its crowd was due to the holiday weekend, but if you plan on going to the exhibit, I would highly recommend going on a weekday. Especially a Tuesday or Wednesday which are usually less busy. The crowd was unfortunately a draw back. Gaultier’s work is so exquisitely detailed that one really should be able to take in a garment from different angles. But when hundreds of other people are trying to do the same thing for 140 pieces, it gets frustrating.

When you walk into the exhibit, the first gallery is lined with white mannequins wearing Gaultier’s creations…with video projections of model’s faces on the mannequins’. Some of them speak, some of them just look around the room with their eyes, some stare blankly out into the crowd.  One of the faces is that of Jean-Paul Gaultier, and he speaks about designing and his inspirations.  The video projections are intriguing, and creepy, but in the best possible way.  The designs featured in this gallery were some of his signature “Sailor” looks from throughout his carrier, pieces from the Mermaid collection and Virgin Collection.

The second gallery is mostly different video presentations of his runway shows. The third gallery focuses on his lingerie and corset designs. The gallery features the famous Madonna “Cone Bra” along with his other gorgeous unisex corsets that are impeccably constructed and truly works of art. The fourth gallery highlights some of his designs that play on gender roles and the human body. My favorite piece from the entire exhibit is in this gallery. It’s the “Skeleton Corset” (click this link to see pictures) that Dita Von Teese wore for JPG’s Fall 2010 collection. It’s a corset constructed to mimic the human skeletal system, with black rhinestone encrusted “bones”.  Seeing it in person, I was able to truly appreciate just how exquisite it is. And that’s how much of the exhibit is. You’ll see many garments that have awed you over the years, and then seeing them close-up is just a whole other experience, and you fall in love all over again. Being able to see the actual craftsmanship of the pieces, the real materials used as opposed to what they looked like. What you thought were feathers, turned out to be grass, Knit sweaters that are actually made out of beads not wool.

The fifth gallery features most of his “internationally inspired” designs. From pieces inspired by an African Fertility Goddess, to his Ukrainian inspired line, and his fantastical Tokyo inspired garments with amazing head dresses. This gallery leads into the next that features a “runway” of sorts. Mannequins, many donned in JPG’s 2011 SS collection, moved around on a conveyor belt. I loved this, as it played well to the exhibit audience, especially with so many people around. You simply had to stand in place and you were able to see each and every garment on the runway up close, enjoy the details as each mannequin passed by you.  This gallery also featured his famous “Garbage Bag” dress along with a few of the costumes from movies he has designed. My husband was disappointed that there was only one costume from The Fifth Element (Chris Tucker’s leopard print ensemble).

Whether you are a Gaultier fan or not, the exhibit has something most people can appreciate. These garments are true works of art and love, many taking over 200 hours of construction for one piece. One can appreciate the themes of avant-garde, gender roles, history, women’s power, and more throughout his body of work.

While the exhibit warns that it contains “adult themes” I believe parents should form their own opinion on whether to take their children or not. I came to appreciate Gaultier’s work when I was young, before I understood why there was controversy over his male models wearing skirts and velvet cone bras and corsets.  I feel that this exhibit has a lot to offer regardless of your age, and can open one’s eyes to the impact fashion can have on the world around us.

The exhibit took us about 2 hours to go through, and cost $20 per person in addition to the $10 per person museum general admission. It is expensive, but both my husband (who is most definitely not a fashion or art minded person) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Since we came to the exhibit late in the day, there wasn’t much time left to see the rest of the museum, and frankly our brains were so overwhelmed by what we had just seen that trying to take in any more art would’ve just underscored everything we had seen. We decided to decompress and take a long stroll through the Golden Gate Park and enjoy some food from the nearby food trucks.  (If Chowder Mobile happens to be there when you are, get the lobster roll. You won’t regret it).

Next time I’ll take you through some festivities that San Fran has to offer for the Golden Gate Bridge and Carnavale.

Now Boldly Go!

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