Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition @ Kunsthal Rotterdam

On the 26th of February, I went with my mother to the Kunsthal in Rotterdam to see the famous Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition called “The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk”. I am a huge fan of Jean Paul Gaultier’s work, and my mom decided we should go there and see his work in real life. So on a rainy day in the spring holiday, we did.
The exhibition is a celebrating of Gaultier’s 35th fashion anniversary. Therefore, the biggest international Jean Paul Gaultier fashion exhibition is set up in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam to show people some fashionable highlights from his extraordinary works.                         

The exhibition was divided in six parts, each part representing a different style with its own type of fashion. The parts were called ‘the Odyssey’, ‘The boudoir’, ‘Skin deep’, ‘Punk cancan’, ‘Urban Jungle’ and ‘Metropolis’.

The Odyssey was an introduction to Gaultier’s life and interests as a fashion designer. Here you could see his famous striped sailor shirts. It was beautifully done: All of the mannequins had a projected face on their heads with real facial features. They blinked with their eyes, their lips were moving when they spoke and some of them winked at you in a funny, sexy way. It was so realistic that it was like real humans were showing his striped creations.

The Boudoir was a very special part. In this section you could see some world famous corsets and for example the pointy bra of Madonna.

The boudoir told the story of Gaultier’s fascination for the woman body. He especially highlighted his love for corsets. There were some photo shoot pictures with men and women wearing a corset with pointy breasts. Also his teddy bear Nana was exposed to show his passion to become a fashion designer at young age because he made (when he was a young boy) a pointy bra from paper Mache on the stuffed animal!

Skin Deep was a little dirty in a sexual way. The room was made drank and was lighted with red spotlights. The mannequins were wearing cloths made of black patent leather. In this part of the exhibition, Gaultier wanted to show his ideas to mix the gender of clothing. He was convinced that men wanted chic and handmade fashion as well as women did. There were some fine and detailed man pants and shirts and sexy leathers dresses of women.

The next room was called Punk Cancan. Here, Gaultier exposed some tough and sturdy creations. In the middle of the room, there was a large white catwalk were dressed mannequins automatically moved up and down the runway. The other mannequins all had a black Mohawk. They were wearing army-like robes or denim jumpsuits. Gaultier wanted to show the world that teenage clothing was haute couture as well.

Urban Jungle was one my favourite rooms. All of the creations were inspired by animal skins and nature colours. One mannequin was wearing high fur boots and a dress made of goose feathers. The way Gaultier turned feathers, part of animal skin and brown leather into haute couture was just fantastic!

The last part was Metropolis. In this room you could behold futuristic creations with bright colours. Gaultier used special things in his clothes. One dress was partly made of old film roles for example. Another piece of clothing was inspired by the World Wars and some bullet belts were draped around the mannequin.

 

Overall, I really enjoyed the exhibition! It was just so amazing to see that many different styles of fashion only made by one designer. Jean Paul Gaultier is a genius man, and all people who visited the Kunsthal to see his exhibition will truly agree with me.