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

Jean Paul Gaultier has always had an open-minded view of society; exploring and investigating ideas with a grand sense of humor.

Gaultier started his career in 1970 at age 18 as an assistant to Pierre Cardin, and more recently he has been the creative director of Hermès from 2003 to 2010. Gaultier is known for using unconventional models for his exhibitions like full-figured, older women, and tattooed models as well as conventional models. This is partly why he’s so recognizable and popular as a designer. He has said, “In life, I like the blemishes, scars, emotions of the skin, of the flesh, of movement—everything that is human.” I think he has a special eye to view the beauty of life. He has also said, “Women become beautiful once they become forty.”

Walking slowly through the Dallas Museum of Art I could hear the soundtrack of Gaultier’s life playing through his six themed rooms: “The Odyssey of Jean Paul Gaultier,” “Boudoir,” “Skindeep,” “Punk Cancan,” “Urban Jungle,” and “Metropolis.” These six rooms feature approximately 130 ensembles from his couture collections.

I imagine his playlist might include some Boy George, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Amy Winehouse, the soundtrack to Nine and some Cole Porter Anything Goes.

Porter’s lyrics to Anything Goes couldn’t be more parfait for Gaultier!

In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
But now, God knows,
Anything Goes.

Entering the energetic atmosphere there are thirty life-like mannequins to great you in first room “The Odyssey of Jean Paul Gaultier” including a mannequin of the “bad boy sailor” Gaultier himself speaking, “Hello, welcome, I am Jean Paul Gaultier. I am very happy to receive you here in the Dallas Museum of Art. Enjoy the show.

I love his choice of real everyday looking women with unusual faces for his cutting edge talking mannequins. He wants for people to see everyone’s beauty. He thinks of fashion as a game and does not call his work “art.” He says, “My job is to make clothes that have to be worn.” I think Gaultier is being humble to not call his couture creations “art”…oui, bien sûr it’s art!

It is such a pleasant treat that more and more museums are welcoming fashion. Dallas has been in the lime light twice now. It was just a few years ago that SMU welcomed Spanish designer Balenciaga. In 2008, New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted the Chanel exhibition and more recently the MET also featured Alexander McQueen’s designs.

Although Gaultier says he doesn’t think about a certain time period for his inspiration, he can make you feel like you just stepped back in time or into the future like he did in  The Fifth Element movie.

Museum visitors feels like they could be in the Belle Époque period about to run into Toulouse Lautrec painting Jane Avril doing the cancan. Then he takes the audience to Amsterdam’s red light district in the “Boudoir” room. A cigarette seemed an appropriate thing to have after being in the “Boudoir” and “Skindeep” rooms… et voila, many of the mannequins were holding cigarettes in the next room smoking for the audience on a moving runway oval platform. It’s as if he wanted us to feel the experience and I can just imagine him saying in his French accent, you just had some naughty fun in Amsterdam and now I’m bringing you the 80s London punk scene and then onward to the "Urban Jungle."

My Ukrainian friend found herself drawn to a dress that was a Tribute to Ukraine. The stunning dress took 242 hours to create.

After seeing The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk  it is certain that Gaultier speaks to all kinds of women. His attitude is that fashion is for everyone. He is playful, whimsical, provocative and imaginative.

What I love about Jean Paul Gaultier is that, like a Picasso, he is easily distinguishable . His style is unapologetic, has good humor, and combines couture with culture.

His artsy, chic, and fashion forward grandmère was his first muse. He played in her closet and was fascinated with the discovery of the corset and wearing underwear as outerwear. He would watch his eclectic grandmother sip vinegar to make herself gasp and contract her stomach muscles and then cinch her corset tighter.

He has been inspired by the streets of London punk music scene, Paris, Folies Beregere, but it was the 40s movie Falbalas that made him want to become a designer. Old movies and showgirls also evoked his passion for fashion.

My mom sent me his first corset bottle perfume when I was in college in 1993 at the University of Alabama. My sorority sisters in the Bible belt couldn’t believe I had such a naughty bottle in my room. The bottle oozed sex! That’s what I mean about Gaultier being unapologetic; his style is “in your face” unique with a side of sex.

He’s had many a famous muse throughout his career: Catherine Deneuve, Helen Mirren, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Madonna, Charlotte Rampling…to name a few.

Madonna’s costumes for the 1990 “Blond Ambition" tour was one of the highlights of the exhibition.

Gaultier has always had a thing for sailor stripes; the stripes portray his bad boy “enfant terrible” image perfectly. A name he earned in the 70s for his first fashion show because of his tendency in challenging the then common views of fashion by reworking them exhaling into them the breath of his own ideas.

He’s inspired by movement and does a lot of design for ballet. Most recently he designed costumes for Angelin Preljocaj’s Snow White ballet and his motivation from the movie The Black Swan can be identified in his pieces in the Fall 2011 couture collection.

Dallas has much to be proud of and we have been extremely lucky to debut Gaultier’s show as one of only two U.S. A. stops. After the show ends in Dallas (February 12th), it will travel to San Francisco.  


Jean Paul Gaultier has definitely made his mark on what fashion is today. The Dallas Museum of Art honors him with a tribute to life. C'est Magnifique!     

Caravaggio and His Followers in Rome...with Children

When I take my children to the museum, I wing it. I think it’s almost better to not have a plan and just have the attitude that you’re going to see what you can see as long as the kids can last. I love to be led by my children and see what artwork they gravitate toward. 

My mom and I recently took my son and daughter to the Kimbell Art Museum’s Caravaggio exhibit. Caravaggio and his followers in Rome was one of those monumental exhibits that was a must see before it ended.  The fifty plus paintings were shown exclusively at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa and Fort Worth’s Kimbell. It was only the third exhibit of Caravaggio’s work ever displayed in the United States. It was amazing to see so many of his paintings together since only about seventy-five exist.

Caravaggio (1571-1610) was an Italian artist who created for private collectors in Rome. His paintings have a way of telling a story with everyday people that even children can be curious about. The dramatic funny faces, card games, and dreamy look of his characters draw you in and make you wonder… "are they like me?" He also painted many religious scenes of beheadings and blood that my mom and I quickly viewed then went onward to baby Jesus. Caravaggio’s realistic paintings of interesting facial expressions made my children laugh out loud.

Simon Vouet’s theatrical response to Caravaggio’s Gypsy Fortune Teller  The Fortune Teller, 1620

We saw many children viewing the Caravaggio exhibit with their parents. Not all museums are child friendly. Lucky for us, there are many museums in the United States that are. There is usually a hands-on kid’s area in most museums in America. You really can’t say the same for museums in Europe.  How nice for my family that we have two very child friendly art museums in the North Texas area, the Dallas Museum of Art and Kimbell Art Museum. Both museums have family festival events and encourage young children to come explore art-making activities, see live performances, and simply make the museum a happy place that children will want to visit again and again. The Kimbell has a family fun day event coming up February 18^th.

When visiting a museum with young children and there are too many tall adults blocking the art, parents have an unwritten permission to cop-a-squat with their little one in the front and see art from their perspective. I liked asking my children questions to get them to think out loud. I asked them: Is that man grumpy or happy? What game are they playing? Can you find an animal? I notice that children always recognize other children their age. My little boy would point and say, “Look Mommy, there’s a kid like me” and “Mommy, they’re playing cards.”

 Kimbell's own Caravaggio, The Cardsharps, 1595

I have always felt museums to be powerful learning environments that give children opportunities to explore, observe and experience art. Children get to choose what to look at, and they leave with the pictures stored in their heads. The memories they created are filed for future reference. Museum experiences help provide children with knowledge and understanding of the world all while gaining an appreciation for art.

Today we can see many different settings in which there is an attempt to morph into a museum. A real museum experience to me should be in a real museum, not like those efforts you may see in a fair-like setting.

When I visit an exhibit, I’m always amazed that no two paintings are exactly alike. There may be a change of light or seasons… I think of Claude Monet and how he experimented with light. It’s fascinating to me how each of his paintings, similar though they may be, have a different feeling or warmth to them.

The Kimbell houses my favorite Henri Matisse, L'Asie, 1946

Looking for inspiration? Here’s a list of children’s books about art and going to the museum:

Jane O’Connor’s Fancy Nancy at the Museum

Blue Balliett’s Chasing Vermeer

Arlene Boehm’s Jack in Search of Art

Lisa Jobe Carmack’s Philippe in Monet's Garden

Elaine Clayton’s Ella's Trip to the Museum

Don Freeman’s Norman the Doorman

Jacqueline P. Weitzman’s You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum

Cristina Bjork’s Linnea in Monet's Garden

Nina Laden’s When Pigasso Met Mootisse

The Kimbell houses one of my favorite Matisse paintings that I always look forward to revisiting when I’m there. I loved sharing it with my children for the first time. When we left the Kimbell, they yelled out, “Bye Matisse, we’ll see you later!” And…we will!

Poetry...the greatest of all arts

People recite poetry at the most memorable events of our lives…retirements, marriages, funerals, graduations, anniversaries, birthdays…poems are often personal and intimate. They may also express humor, spirituality and whimsy. Regardless of the subject matter, poetry can make us think and help to put things into perspective. Just as in art, every person may see and feel differently about poetry and gather inspiration from experiencing it.

As we all respond to the history of art, a poet can’t help but build on what other artists have done in the past as the inspirations of today are lofted by creativity.

Fellow Texan, Austin Kleon, was inspired by what Walt Whitman once said, “The true poem is the daily newspaper.” Kleon has a serendipitous approach to creating poetry; starting with a newspaper (rather than a blank page) and eliminating words he doesn’t need. It’s like an adult game of hide and seek.

Stockholm native, Tomos Transtromer recently won the Nobel Prize for Literature. I think of Chagall when I read Transtromer’s poetry because he is dreamy like Chagall; they both remind us that the world is not what it appears to be…if we look close enough we may find something out of the ordinary.  

Painting by Mark Chagall:  Me and My Village

November in the Former DDR

The almighty cyclop’s-eye clouded over

and the grass shook itself in the coal dust.

Beaten black and blue by the night’s dreams

we board the train

that stops at every station

and lays eggs.

Almost silent.

The clang of the church bells’ buckets

fetching water.

And someone’s inexorable cough

scolding everything and everyone.

A stone idol moves its lips:

it’s the city.

Ruled by iron-hard misunderstandings

among kiosk attendants butchers

metal-workers naval officers

iron-hard misunderstandings, academics!

How sore my eyes are!

They’ve been reading by the faint glimmer of the glow-worm lamps.

November offers caramels of granite.

Unpredictable!

Like world history

laughing at the wrong place.

But we hear the clang

of the church bells’ buckets fetching water

every Wednesday

- is it Wednesday? -

so much for our Sundays!

~ Tomas Transtromer

Photograph by Gerd Ludwig, National Geographic

I love this photograph of these friends who meet Sundays in Sevastopol to sing. I imagine these friends have done this for years; they have the right idea about life…to laugh, sing, and enjoy each other’s company in the moment.

The Crazy Woman

I shall not sing a May song.

A May song should be gay.

I’ll wait until November

And sing a song of gray.

I’ll wait until November.

That is the time for me.

I’ll go out in the frosty dark

And sing most terribly.

And all the little people

Will stare at me and say,

“That is the Crazy Woman

Who would not sing in May.”

~Gwendolyn Brooks

Painting by Gayle Lorraine: A Common Language Painting

Great are the Myths

Great is language…it is the mightiest of the sciences,

It is the fullness and color and form and diversity of the earth…and of men and women…and of all qualities and processes; it is greater than buildings or ships or religions or paintings or music.

~Walt Whitman

It seems that many artists and poets have found inspiration and creativity under rocks that others would choose not to move.  If language is the mightiest of sciences, perhaps more should seek to find questions and answers that provoke the highest level of pensive spirit lifting in common ordinary places, like the newspaper, the clouds or the faces of people experiencing parts of life we may not know so well. Both peace and power may be discovered by singing more songs, writing more words, looking for things that others might not see…and laughing. Try it, you may like it.

Claude Monet and his muse Camille

The paintings of Claude Monet are some of the most recognizable and popular in the world. They tend to have a very strong effect on viewers and make you feel romantic, relaxed, and happy. How lucky are we that Stephanie Cowell chose to write about Monet’s life and the love of his life, his muse, Camille?

My book club recently read Stephanie Cowell’s Claude and Camille. We all loved it so much that I think we could have talked about it for hours. It was so easy to get lost in Monet’s world…romance, art, gardens, beauty…

As I was reading, I couldn’t help think of what Mikhail Baryshnikov said about being in the arts, “People of art should never get married and have children, because it’s a selfish experience.” This is so true! No matter the art: music, dance, painting…all art consumes the personal life and self of the artist.

Camille's support system included Claude's friends. One of his closest friends, Frédéric Bazille, completed an interesting triangle.The three were harmoniously together quite often and deeply cared for one another.  

The struggle of these previously starving but now famous artists: Renoir, Bazille, and Pissaro, Cezanne, Manet is now known to us all. They were bohemian Impressionistic nomads who attempted to get their art into the annual State salon at the Palais de L’Industrie.  The tight bunch of friends lived on beans, wine, coffee, and bread, and would take turns sleeping on the floor.

From one painting Monet entered in the salon (Impression, Sunrise), a new art movement began and Monet emerged as the leader of the whole group (Frédéric Bazille, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley) due to a hostile critic who coined the term “Impressionists.”

Looking back on his life at sixty-years old Monet said, “I was born in a circle entirely given over to commerce, and where all professed a contemptuous distain for the arts.”

Camille grew up in a bourgeois upper class family and left behind her well off fiancé and family when she ran away with Monet. Once she met Monet, she knew she wanted to rebel. She threw away her life of privilege to be with him. Camille became Claude’s true inspiration, his muse.

It's no wonder Camille's family was not pleased with their daughter's decision to run off with Claude because they knew he could not support her. Monet had a different idea of what work was. His father (and Camille's) could not convince him to take on a "real" job.

I read that he hated school and always wanted to be outside; loving the open-air, he had an obsession with sea cliffs. He grew up in the sleepy sea town of Le Havre were his dad sold supplies to fisherman.

Monet brought sunshine into his art work. More than any of his colleagues, he loved to be outside and find inspiration for his paintings. He was fascinated with how sunlight made colors look different at different times of the day.

Monet once said, "I have so much fire in me and so many plans. I always want the impossible. Take clear water with grass waving at the bottom. It’s wonderful to look at, but to try to paint it is enough to make one insane." It seemed part of Camille's job as his muse was to keep Monet from going insane.

Reading Claude and Camille I also thought of the book The Girl with the Pearl Earring.  Authors Tracy Chevalier and Stephanie Cowell have a common theme in their books. Vermeer, like Monet, had a beautiful woman as his muse. A muse is someone with a powerful inspiration who gives rise to the creator and has a deep and powerful effect on an artist. It seems most great artists have a muse.

As family life became more important to him with the birth of their first son Jean, Monet's art took on an emotional richness, and a depth; at the soul of his painting was Camille.

Camille had a hard time finding herself. She tried her hand at writing and acting, realizing it wasn’t for her she became depressed.

When my book club discussed Cowell’s book, one of the hot topics was if we thought Claude was selfish. I believe it was unanimous that we all thought he was selfish and should have tried supporting his family in another way while they were literally starving! As my friend Linda said, “He puts his pants on just like everyone else.”

We agreed that he was dedicated to his art to the point of selfish irresponsibility but his paintings make up in beauty what he could not give to his loved ones.

Monet was prepared to make any sacrifice and have his family undergo discomfort for the sake of his art. For Monet, art came first and family second. Monet truly loved Camille but he had a difficult time balancing his two loves (art and family). Painting was how Monet dealt with reality and relationships.

Camille had such a profound effect on Monet’s career. She was as mysterious as the water lilies that he strove to capture on canvas. She was complex and kept a lot of secrets. I think she was very much a free-spirit and loved Claude. He painted her for years, even in death. He felt as long as she was on his canvas, she was with him; she haunted him in life and death.

His Water Lily series is like the Sistine Chapel of Impressionism because it’s the ultimate expression of impressionism painting. When I saw Monet’s Water Lily panels at the MoMA. I remember tears filled my eyes; it was an emotional experience to stand in front of such a BIG and POWERFUL work of art. Cowell writes in Claude and Camille, "Of all his portraits of her, these paintings of the water lilies were the truest ones, for within them he had captured her beauty, her variability, and her light."

Cowell beautifully expresses how much Monet loved Camille, "My love for you is deep, deep inside myself like something below the water. Only with my brush when I can paint again will I express it."

Camille's sister Annette blamed Claude for Camille's death. Reading Cowell's book you get a better understanding of Monet's thinking..."Annette, I wish I were a better man than I am; I could wish it a thousand times,” he replied. “All I know is that Minou loved me and I loved her. You wanted a certain life for her, but she had to choose her own. She chose me and my work. I’m not separate from my work. She was very clear in what she chose, and she didn’t choose to die. I’ll never believe that. And if I ever betrayed her, I’m sorry a thousand times."

Monet’s second love, Alice Hoschedé was a cultured woman from a very comfortable middle-class background. Alice took a huge risk (a lot like Camille) when she went to live with Monet with her six children who was then a penniless artist. It was actually Camille's idea to invite Alice and her children to live with them.

Another hot topic to our book club discussion was that we wondered if Camille knew Claude cared for Alice when she invited Alice and her six children to live with them. Oh to have a time machine that could take you back to find out details!

Early on with Camille, he hardly made any money, not being able to pay rent and owing everybody. Monet relied almost entirely on his paintings to keep his family alive. Sadly, Camille never experienced the good life he eventually had in Giverny with Alice and their combined eight children.

I visited Claude Monet’s house in Giverny when I was seventeen; I remember the vivid colors and the calm and happy feeling of the painter’s beautiful garden and pink house. It was full of bourgeois character and charm. The color palette and décor is something I knew I wanted in my home, especially the yellow dining room because it’s such a cheery color.

Claude Monet is so identified with his home in Giverny. This book mostly focuses on a time before Giverny. He spent forty-three years there and created most of his great work outside in his garden.

Monet painted in many different settings throughout his life: Algeria, (painting the African sun when he was in the military), England, Holland, and the countryside and seasides of France. During his entire career, he always loved to be outside.

Cowell changed the way I look at Monet's paintings. She made me more observant to the emotions in his art. I imagine if you read Claude and Camille you will feel the same way.

In the end, Monet lost both wife’s (Camille and Alice), his eyesight, and his beloved stepdaughter. Sometimes through tragedy comes the creation of great beauty. Monet's breathtakingly beautiful work gives him (and Camille) immortality. Cowell painted the images of the characters in the readers mind through her words and truly brought Monet's art to life.

The Julia Child Book Club met and had a French country meal fit for Monet’s house in Giverny. I think Stephanie Cowell would have been pleased with our little club, Claude and Camille too.  Salut et a bientot!

Martha Graham: The Body Says What Words Cannot

Do you notice that when you get back from a great vacation your memories make that vacation seem even better because you constantly replay the good times in your head? The same is true with a great dance performance; you think about it and replay favorite parts that are forever etched in your memory. It becomes bigger and better long after it’s over. Dance is an art form that lives in your memories unlike a painting that you can see again.

Martha Graham was one of the greatest American artists; she broke the traditional mold of dance like Picasso did for art. Her work is classic, captivating, and powerful. She was a pioneer and a revolutionary in dance and her form of art is still relevant to new generations today. Her dance company is one of the oldest and most celebrated modern dance companies in the world.

The great thing about dance is that it continues to evolve and if it really speaks to you, it won’t be dated. Watching The Martha Graham Company at the Winspear last Saturday night, even knowing that many of the pieces were choreographed in the 30’s; I found that they still translate today.

The Martha Graham Company has been around for 85 years, founded in 1926. Graham worked with many famous icons: Gregory Peck, Bette Davis, Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Liza Minnelli, Kathleen Turner, Betty Ford…She opened doors and broke down a wall between classical ballet versus modern dance but also all the arts…The skill and tradition that is in classical ballet makes modern dance seem indulgent because it’s so much more self-expressive and complex; but this is what makes you think AND FEEL! Ballet can be equally as radical but it’s not as organic and liberating as modern dance.

Martha danced up into her 70’s (like Margot Fonteyn).  I like the fact that Graham’s dancers are mature; this way they have a greater understanding and feeling of life because they have been seasoned enough to share the beautiful and ugly experiences that life peppered them with. Martha said, “It takes ten years to make a dancer; that’s ten years of training. It takes another ten years to find the being you are.”   

Raised in California, she was strongly influenced by Native American cultures and loved New Mexico. When Graham died at 96 in 1991 her ashes were scattered in New Mexico, a place where she found her greatest inspiration. Like The Doors musician Jim Morrison and modernist painter Georgia O’Keefe, Martha Graham was inspired by the beauty and spirituality of the Southwest that naturally envelops you. She was also, like Isadora Duncan, inspired by Greek mythology. You can see both Native American movements and Greek statuesque arms in her dances; the style is powerful and feminine accentuated by the loose hair and flowing dresses that bring out her liberating style even more.

Graham’s technique is centered in the Earth, unlike classical ballet, she embraced gravity. Movements are driven from the core of the body and breath is where the power comes from. This seems more natural to us today because many people are familiar with the practice of Pilates and yoga and the focus of the core and how breath is the instigator.

The Martha Graham Dance Company has some of the most memorable costumes of any dance company. In her most famous solo piece, Lamentation, a one person performance of a woman struggling in a tube dress shows an expression of grief. The audience feels the emotion of the dancer and then possibly their own. She used her costumes to enhance her dances.

I think the fashion industry should play more into the dance world. It would be such a pleasure to see the two art forms come together more often and collaborate to inspire each other. I’m thinking of a Project Runway challenge. How cool would it be to see the choreographer inspired by a costume and vice versa?   

What I enjoyed about the TITAS Martha Graham concert at the Winspear Opera House was that I didn’t feel overwhelmed by Graham’s powerful style. Sometimes you can have too much “in your face” modern that you need a refresher. I think back to when I was at the Vatican and remember that there was just so much elaborate detail in every corner that I felt like I needed to rest my eyes. But once you started walking out of the Sistine Chapel you could view some modern art in the halls to refresh your eyes.

The same is true for Martha Graham’s dance repertoire; she had some very powerful and aggressive pieces like Panorama which were very military-like. The red costumes highlighted the fierceness of the piece. Panorama was a special performance for Dallas because SMU Meadows dancers were lucky enough to perform with The Martha Graham Company. SMU made Dallas proud and I’m sure Martha too! There were also pieces like Lamentations Variations that made you think in another direction…struggle, grief, and the New York skyline. Every Graham piece has great feeling but each feeling fights a different battle.

To set the mood for the performances, dances opened with a video that explained the times (hardships of the 30’s) with narration and images to take you there. I enjoyed hearing Martha Graham’s voice as a prelude to a dance.

Having my degree in dance I have a strong background in Martha Graham’s history. Looking at the audience at the Winspear Opera House last Saturday night I couldn’t help but wonder how many people were seeing Martha Graham’s work for the first time. My friend was one of those people and she observed that the dances were heavy, powerful, and that they made you think. I’m sure Martha Graham would be happy to know her dances still have (and will always have) the power to speak, be timeless, and be relevant even to a first time viewer.

Dance is a universal language; through movement we feel, speak, and understand with no translations needed. The message doesn't need to be the same for every viewer, but the inspiration and motivation of the dance movement is relevant and successful if it results in causing us to think, and appreciate. Martha said, “The body says what words cannot” and “Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body.” I couldn't agree more.  

Photos: The Martha Graham Dance Company Lamentation Variations, Winspear Opera House