JPG retrospective opens in Montreal

‘The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk’ at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts unites 130 pieces from the designer’s collections dating to 1976.

The exhibition, which opened on Friday, nearly didn’t come together due to its subject’s hesitation.

‘[A] retrospective usually follows your funeral and I’m still alive, but Nathalie Bondil [director and chief curator] convinced me,’ Gaultier told WWD during a Q&A at the launch event last week. ‘The purpose is to show what I want to say through clothes. It is to make clothes that you will love and wear. It’s a good way to show my themes.’

The show is organised around six themed areas: the Odyssey of JPG, Boudoir, Skin Deep, Punk, Can-Can, Urban Jungle and Metropolis. Mannequins with digitally projected faces—almost expressive, and all the more engrossing for being borderline creepy—enliven the clothes.

But did Gaultier ever expect to see his designs in an art museum?

‘I don’t think my work is art,’ Gaultier said. ‘We are in the service of men and women.’