French designer Jean Paul
Gaultier brought his lively and eccentric "Fashion Freak Show"
to the London stage this week, a musical production looking back
on his life from childhood classroom sketches to the Paris haute
couture catwalks.
The two-hour extravaganza, previously at Paris' Folies
Bergere hall, sees actors, dancers and performance artists take
to the stage as an eclectic mix of characters to recount
Gaultier's memories from his nearly 50 years in fashion.
Fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier, centre arms outstretched, poses with cast members for his Fashion Freak Show. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)
Part revue, part catwalk show, the production presents new
creations by Gaultier, long known as fashion's "enfant
terrible", vintage outfits as well as references to his iconic
looks from Breton striped sailor tops to the conical bra worn by
Madonna during her 1990 "Blonde Ambition" tour.
Gaultier, who held his first catwalk show in 1976, has long
been known for pushing boundaries in fashion, blurring the lines
between men's and women's clothing, something regularly
referenced in "Fashion Freak Show".
Asked what he wanted audiences to take away from the show,
Gaultier said: "To appreciate different kinds of beauty, that
people are different."
Designer Jean Paul Gaultier poses with members of the cast of "Fashion Freak Show". (Picture: Reuters)
"We are a world made of different people and anyone of us
has beauty. You have to see it," he told Reuters after
Wednesday's performance.
Opening with dancers dressed as bears wearing conical bras -
the young Gaultier first created the look on his childhood teddy
- the show features plenty of his staple corsets, skin-tight
outfits and outlandish as well as provocative pieces.
Against the backdrop of a giant screen where Gaultier's
famous friends performed for the show, models danced to funk,
disco, punk or rock as they recreated professional and personal
moments in the designer's life, including his childhood
influences, visiting London and major catwalk shows.
"My dreams as a young child became reality ... to see it
I've lived that already but to make it I wanted to give homage
to all the people that inspired me, the cities that inspired
me," Gaultier said.
Designer Jean Paul Gaultier. (Picture: Reuters)
Gaultier, who has dressed a spate of celebrities from Oscar
winner Marion Cotillard to singer Lady Gaga, quit ready-to-wear
fashion in 2014 to focus on haute couture and his perfume line.
Asked if there was anyone he would like to still dress, he
said: "Queen Elizabeth of course but I know it's impossible ...
In reality, I think it's the people who like what I'm doing. I
like to dress them."
(Reuters)