Our recent move to Dallas is proving to fulfill our lives with a richness of world class art + culture. Today’s outing to the Dallas Museum of Art to see Jean Paul Gaultier’s exhibit was pretty spectacular. We luckily arrived early to the museum before the actual opening, as the lines and crowds were miles long just a few hours into the day. Dallas is so fortunate to be the first of only two US cities to be on the international tour for “From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk”.  The exhibit will be leaving Dallas later this month, to travel to San Francisco for its next exhibition.

Jean Paul Gaultier is one of the most important fashion desingers in recent decades. The exhibition includes over 130 haute couture dresses, along with accessories {handbags + jewelry}, headpieces and shoes. It was a glorious visual stimulation for all fashion lovers and artists. The ability to view these pieces in person, showed the high detail, mix of materials, layering of patterns, which all help to create the full masterpiece show which was phenomenal. With a quick glance, you may see a leopard print, but up close you would see the hand stitched sequin detailing that proved it was a Jean Paul Gaultier special.

The exhibit was broken into 6 different galleries: The Odyssey of Jean Paul Gaultier, The Boudoir, Skindeep, Punk Cancan, Urban Jungle, and Metropolis. The pieces displayed ranged from the 1970’s to 2010, with many of them never being exhibited before. The exhibit also featured sketches, photographs and video clips. Another interesting add for this exhibition was 30 animated mannequins in costume who talk and sing, which added alot of life and personality to the fashion.

The costumes designed by Jean Paul Gaultier are wonderfully beautiful. If you have an opportunity to see this show while on tour, don’t pass it up. If you can’t make it, enjoy what I saw below:

The runway dress on the left was one of my favorites, as it was catwalk to boardwalk wearable. The shear material draped beautifully with the button detailing that was so “awe……lovely”.
Another favorite was the dress on the left, which had acetate strip film details. It was so unique and pure genuis with the detailed corset volumious shoulders flowing to the elegant skirt and long train.

One of the more visually stiumulated galleries included a live show continuous along the catwalk. It was crowded with people lined up one by one to get a glance of the garment “up close” as no understandment of detail and quality could be understood without that close viewing. If you have seen his work in person, you know what I am referring to.

Thank you Dallas for enriching our day with such vibrant fashion.