Jean Paul Gaultier grew up with his grandmother in France’s Val-de-Marne. She would soon get him started in couture; it was only natural that at age 6 he created his very first outfits, to dress up his teddy bear. One day, he found a corset at his grandmother’s house. This piece, that once enclosed the female body like a cage, would frequently show up in his future collections. It was upon seeing the film Falbalas – following the trajectory of a young couturier – that he finally received the harbringer of his destiny and would turn to fashion. This predilection for fantastic clothing would lead him to work with great classics and reinvent them with insolent gimmickry. When he saw Madonna sing Holiday on “Top of the Pops” in 1983, he saw in her an explosive mix of punk and pop, a sort of muse for stylized provocation. It was a revelation for him; from then on he dreamed of dressing up Madge.
He entered into the Fashion universe alongside Pierre Cardin. His sincerity, geniality, and humility make him a singular personality in this glitzy world.
From 1984 onwards, the corset would appear in his collections and was already attracting the attention of fashion writers fascinated by its skillfulness in democratizing the usage and wearing of an outmoded garment. It highlighted curves, turned things inside-out, and, with sophisticated seduction, brought female attributes out from the shackles of bourgeois aesthetics. In his under-corsets, veritable containers for the breasts, the woman is set free. Sensual, cool, sexy, even domineering. In 1990, his fantasy came to life when Madonna, the emblem of gender liberation, personally called out to him for the costumes for her third world tour Blond Ambition. The two artists collaborated to give birth to esoteric and erotic outfits. The punk style that is falsely typical of Gaultier espoused the provocation and impropriety of the pop star. The light pink cone bra, which is actually a full corset, incarnates the harmony of an entire era. Made of pink satin with geometric effects, this corset-bustier zips in the front and is belted. The pointed cups are like two torpedoes, ready to take off, and reflect these two artists’ vision: a conquering femininity, a guardian femininity, in short, a female mentor. What could be more neoclassical than an undergarment to dress up a Madonna?
Jean Paul Gaultier has turned the most splendid aspects of anti-conformism into his label and his own signature.
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