The Nazi occupation of Paris lasted from June 14, 1940 to August 25, 1944. The Nazi authorities initially planned to move the entire Paris fashion industry to the German Reich. Lucian Lelong, then head of the Chambre Syndicale, convinced them that the haute couture could only exist, “in Paris or . . . not at all.” Among those who could legally purchase Paris couture during the Occupation were some 20,000 French women (who had special couture ration cards) about 200 Germans, and citizens of neutral countries, such as Spain and Switzerland.
Jeanne-Marie Lanvin was a French haute couture fashion designer, who founded the Lanvin fashion house and the beauty and perfume company Lanvin Parfums. She designed this gray, black and gold Brocade Evening Coat in 1943.
Photographed as Part of The Exhibit, Paris, Capital of Fashion, On View at The Museum at FIT in Manhattan Through January 4th, 2020.
Have you already been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see this year’s fashion extravaganza, Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination? It’s pretty amazing, right? But did you know that the exhibit also extends to The Cloisters museum in upper Manhattan? If you haven’t made it up there yet, then you are seriously missing out on seeing many of the best pieces in the exhibit! But don’t worry, you’ve still got time to see everything, including this ethereal design by one of our favorites, Jean Paul Gaultier!
The Communion Ensemble, from Gaultier’s Spring /Summer 2007 Haute Couture Collection, is made of pink silk mousseline and displays a chalice formed out of gathered chiffon and overlaid with a brown cotton lace applique, which echoes the delicate filigree of an adjacent chalice displayed on the same gallery. While the foot of the chalice rests on the stomach of the wearer, the bowl quit literally “cups” her breasts — a typical JPG provocation.
Sandals Detail
Given the chalice’s role in celebrating the Eucharist and containing the consecrated wine believed to be transformed into the blood of Christ during Mass, this garment’s placement in The Cloisters all the more incendiary.
Photographed at the Met Cloisters. Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, is on View Through October 8th, 2018 at both the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Fifth Avenue and Cloisters Locations) in NYC.
This dress, part of Dutch designer Iris van Herpin’s Autumn 2102 haute couture collection, was 3D printed using a process called Stereolithography. It was built layer by layer in a vessel of liquid polymer. The polymer hardens when struck by a laser beam. This technique allows for more texture and transparency than selective laser sintering. Graphic and organic elements come together to evoke dimensional lacework.
Fabricated from ark orange epoxy by Materialise, hand-sanded and hand-sprayed with a technical transparent resin, this is the second 3D printed dress by van Herpin to be featured as part of this blog’s Eye On Design series.
Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art as Part of the Manus X Machina Fashion Exhibit, which has Now Closed.
The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk is a must-see event at the Brooklyn Museum, on exhibit through February 23rd, 2014. Presented in this fourth post from the show is our final set of photos, featuring one of a kind selections from the Skin Deep and Metropolis Galleries. Enjoy!
I’m not really sure who would wear this Nude Silhouette Dress, but it’s at least much less frightening than This Dress.
The Skin Deep gallery is set up like Amsterdam’s Red Light District, where each outfit represents a different “prostitute,” if you will. It is here that you will see extremely avant-garde-bordering-on-festish designs that were very challenging to capture in photographs due to the low light/ no flash double whammy.
Flayed Catsuit worn onstage by French Superstar Mylene Farmer.
Blood Vessel Bodysuit with Beaded Cap and Heart Handbag
I am pretty sure this is a costume designed for a specific Popstar, but I neglected to note just who (guess: Lady Gaga).
Celluloid Dress and Accessories made from Film Strips (Caution: Highly Flammable)!
I call this one the Green Peapod Dress!
From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk’s final gallery is called Metropolis and it definitely wraps up the exhibit on a note consistent with the high bar set by everything that came before it.
Couture Gown with Native American-Inspired Headdress
Leopard Pelt-Accented Gown
La Mariee Dress from the Tribute to Africa Collection
The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk is on Exhibit Through February 23rd, 2014 at the Brooklyn Museum, Located at 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York 11238-6052 (Take the 2 or 3 Trains to Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum). The Exhibit is in the Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing and Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery on the 5th Floor. Admission to the Exhibit is $15 and is separate from General Admission to the Museum. Students with ID and Corporate Members Pay $10. Members see Gaultier for free. On-site ticket sales end at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and 9:00 PM on Thursday. Hours are Wednesday: 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM, Thursday: 11:00 AM –10:00 PM, Friday – Sunday: 11:00 AM– 6:00 PM.
Yellow Tartan Punk-Inspired Outfits by John Paul Gaultier (All Photos By Gail)
These fabulous photos of High Fashion creations come from the Punk CanCan Gallery at the Jean Paul Gaultier Exhibit on now through February 23rd, 2014 at the Brooklyn Museum. I visited two weeks ago and was completely blown away by how imaginative and fun this multi-gallery exhibit is. It is a must see for all lovers of art and fashion.
Punk CanCan showcases Gaultier’s blended vision of Parisian Classicism with London Punk.
Fabrics and materials range from leather and vinyl/plastic to denim and metal or beaded accents.
This image of the Virgin Mary is the detail from the front panel of a long skirt.
Beaded Skull Detail from the back of a jacket.
This mind-boggling chiffon camouflage dress required 312 hours to make and was worn by Sarah Jessica Parker to the 2000 MTV Awards.
In the center of the Punk Cancan gallery, an automated Runway mimicking a Catwalk rotates mannequins in a circle around the platform. This makes it easy to just stand in one place to get the photos you want, allowing time, of course, for intruding heads and bodies to step out of the frame!
One can be seen in the above photo lifting a gigantic cancan skirt to reveal a kicking leg motif on the lining. Pretty clever!
Eiffel Tower Dress!
The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk is on Exhibit Through February 23rd, 2014 at the Brooklyn Museum, Located at 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York 11238-6052 (Take the 2 or 3 Trains to Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum). The Exhibit is in the Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing and Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery on the 5th Floor. Admission to the Exhibit is $15 and is separate from General Admission to the Museum. Students with ID and Corporate Members Pay $10. Members see Gaultier for free. On-site ticket sales end at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and 9:00 PM on Thursday. Hours are Wednesday: 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM, Thursday: 11:00 AM –10:00 PM, Friday – Sunday: 11:00 AM– 6:00 PM.
If you’re a fan of costume and couture exhibits, and you thought that 2011’s Alexander McQueen exhibit, Savage Beauty (which dominated traffic at The Met for close to a year) was amazing, then your head will definitely explode when you see the Brooklyn Museum’s must-see extravaganza,The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk. We arrived at the Brooklyn Museum not really knowing what to expect, and were so blown away by this expansive and wildly impressive exhibit that you can count on the 100 or so photographs I snapped during yesterday’s visit being spread out over several blog posts.
Photos Above and Below Examples of JPG Virgin Gowns
The exhibit is divided into six galleries and the photos in this post are from the very first gallery, The Odyssey, which is presented in the round. It includes three distinctive styles and is your introduction to the exhibit’s most unique and fun characteristics: facially emoting mannequins. These custom mannequins with interactive faces are created by high-definition audiovisual projections. To give you an example of what this phenomena actually looks like, it is very similar to the technology used at Disneyland for the Haunted Mansion, where a medium’s head encased within a crystal ball conducts a seance and headstones in the graveyard sing “Grim Grinning Ghosts.” Needless to say, it is extremely cool.
Close Up of Mannequin’s Face
You can see the Sacred Heart of Mary Influence in all of these designs
The Brooklyn Museum is the only East Coast venue for The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, the first international exhibition dedicated to the groundbreaking French couturier. Playful, poetic, and transformative, Gaultier’s superbly crafted and detailed garments are inspired by the beauty and diversity of global cultures.
John Paul Gaultier Welcomes you to his exhibit.
Above and Below JPG’s Signature Sailor-Themed Designs
The remainder of the exhibit is divided into five additional custom galleries including The Boudoir, Skin Deep, Punk CanCan, Urban Jungle and Metropolis and features approximately 140 haute couture and ready to wear ensembles from the designer’s earliest to his most recent collections. Besides clothing ensembles you’ll see accessories, sketches, stage costumes, excerpts from films and documentation of runway shows, concerts, and dance performances, as well as photographs by fashion photographers and contemporary artists who stepped into Gaultier’s world, which explore how his avant-garde designs challenge societal, gender and aesthetic codes in unexpected ways.
Look at these cool gowns and designs inspired by Mermaids:
As I said, if you were Wowed by Savage Beauty, the Gaultier exhibit is equally impressive, while it lacks the extreme fetishism of the McQueen exhibit. And it goes without saying, but you can see I am about to, that it blows The Met’s uneven Chaos to Couture Punk Fashion exhibit completely out of the water. Check back during the week for more photos!
The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk is on Exhibit Through February 23rd, 2014 at the Brooklyn Museum, Located at 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York 11238-6052 (Take the 2 or 3 Trains to Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum). The Exhibit is in the Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing and Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery on the 5th Floor. Admission to the Exhibit is $15 and is separate from General Admission to the Museum. Students with ID and Corporate Members Pay $10. Members see Gaultier for free. On-site ticket sales end at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and 9:00 PM on Thursday. Hours are Wednesday: 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM, Thursday: 11:00 AM –10:00 PM, Friday – Sunday: 11:00 AM– 6:00 PM.
The New York Times’ Arts Beat Blog reports that the Metropolitan Museum of Art is extending the hours of the wildly popular Costume Institute exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, which opened on May 4th.
The exhibit, which I saw a couple of weeks after it opened and was completely wowed by, was originally due to close on July 31st but it has been extended through August 7th due to overwhelming demand. Starting July 22nd The Met will allow members to enter the museum at 8:30 AM, an hour before the show opens to the public, via the museum’s 81st Street entrance and 80th Street garage. Additionally, from August 4th to the 7th, the exhibition will remain open until 9:00 PM, and hours for the show are now offered on Mondays, when the museum is generally closed to the public. Monday tickets, which cost $50, are available at the Met and on its website.
According to the Times, over 440,000 people have come to see the retrospective of the British fashion designer’s outrageous Haute Couture since it opened in May. Alexander McQueen committed suicide last year at the age of 40, but the Savage Beauty of his work lives on.
