One of the things that always gets me in anything I look at is texture, especially if combined with colour. The Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition is a real feast for the eyes when it comes to both, but the texture kind of becomes even more important… because everything is handmade. Every bead is painstankingly hand sewn in place. No detail is left unfinished or left to chance. The detail is fantastic and it’s well worth spending a few hours admiring it as so seldom we get to see beautifully made clothes like this, in a Primark universe.
Jean Paul Gaultier is very well known for his lingerie-like outfits, structured silhouettes with corsets worn as outer wear. Everyone remembers Madonna’s cone bra, back in 1990, right? Some are simpler than others, where the structure and construction of the garment is accentuated and becomes the decoration in itself… others can be richly decorated and enbroidered. You can see them in many materials throughout JPG’s collections and it would appear to me that it’s something he always ends up going back to. I find these pieces fascinating, it’s all that I can say.