The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk

Dubbed fashion’s enfant terrible, Jean Paul Gaultier launched his first prêt-à-porter collection in 1976 and founded his own couture house in 1997. Emerging as a designer in the 1970s, he developed his own dress codes that reflected the changing world around him. The openly gay Gaultier uses his designs to tackle gender and transgender issues through androgynous, gender-bending styles, meanwhile delving even further into some of the darker areas of the sexual revolution. Always provocative, he addresses issues of multiculturalism by bringing ethnic diversity to the Paris runway. Despite the gritty and sometimes controversial context of his collections, the clothes remain beautiful, superbly crafted with the finest dressmaking and detailing skills.

Who better to promote The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk than Kylie Minogue? No one, that's who. The pop icon's image, as seen above, will grace poster walls, lampposts, and a sundry of buildings in the Bay Area during the exhibition starting this week. (Her laced visage and body was also seen at pitstops in Montreal.)

Kylie Minogue by Jean Paul Gaultier. Poster for "de Young Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco".

What: The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk
Where: deYoung Museum, Golden Gate Park (50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive), SF, 415-750-3600

Exhibition Catalogue. Catalogue cover, The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier.

Jean Paul Gaultier.