Elite Traveler May-June 2015

INSPIRE ART AS FASHION

him, Givenchy was struck by how ideal the museum would be for Balenciaga; Givenchy was both a friend and admirer of the couturier and is honorary president of the Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum in Getaria, Spain. “We already had quite a nice collection of Balenciaga, about 16 haute-couture pieces, and from there he brought the idea together for us,” Boucher says, adding that Givenchy put the teams from the twomuseums together, thus creating a joint project (the exhibition will travel to Spain when it finishes in Calais). “Without question, the fact that Monsieur Givenchy was the patron for this project opened doors for us.” a four-year itinerary for Thierry-Maxime Loriot. Born in Canada, Loriot is a former model and art-history student who became involved in curating. After two successful exhibitions, he was approached by the Montreal Museum, which was planning to mount a showing of Jean Paul Gaultier’s work. The Fashion of Jean Paul Gaultier debuted in 2011 and has since traveled to Dallas, Stockholm, Melbourne, Australia, and points beyond. But its arrival in Paris, opening at the Grand Palais on April 1, brings another layer to the exhibition, Loriot says. “This is Mr. Gaultier’s home, so of course there’s added meaning,” he says. Loriot explains he wanted to blend Gaultier’s modernist leanings with the opulence of the Grand Palais: "When visitors ascend the museum’s wide marble staircase, camera flashes and video scanning are meant to make them feel like part of a fashion show, while a moving catwalk will feature looks that evoke a decidedly Parisian sensibility. We have 40 years of archives to work with, so we’ve been able to make the exhibition feel unique for each city,” Loriot says. Pieces common to each city range from the iconic corsets Gaultier created for Madonna’s 1990 Blonde Ambition tour, to heavily beaded haute-couture gowns that took more than 1,600 hours to craft. Prior to its Paris opening, a total of 1.5 million people had visited the Gaultier exhibition in its nine previous iterations. Numbers like that make it easy to see why fashion exhibitions have become a staple of the museum circuit – as long as the right elements are in place. “It’s about the content, it’s not about blockbusters that people will come to see because they’re trendy,” Loriot says. “This isn’t just a flashy message, it’s a social message. In his work, Gaultier pays tribute to different cultures, types of beauty, ages, body shapes, skin colors and genders. That creates a rich subject matter that fascinates everybody.” Ultimately, that fascination for each designer’s unique aesthetic has museums and visitors alike thinking about artistry first, with the word “fashion” taking a backseat. “It’s not about fashion as

Top left Jean Paul Gaultier. Above A spectacular Jean Paul Gaultier creation. Left Photograph from the exhibition

Paris is the 10 th city on what has become

much as it is about newmediums,” Loriot says. “Video art wasn’t shown in museums even 15 or 20 years ago. For a museum, it’s important to bring a new clientele to a different form of art. And today the whole artistic world – fashion, art, music, film – collides. To be able to expose people to something they have never seen before, whether it’s a video installation or a haute-couture gown, (and why can’t it be both?), for me, that’s exciting.” STAIRCASE, CAMERA FLASHES AND VIDEO SCANNING ARE MEANT TOMAKE THEM FEEL LIKE PARTOFA FASHION SHOW” Thierry-Maxime Loriot, curator of The Fashion of Jean Paul Gaultier “WHEN VISITORS ASCEND THE MUSEUM’SWIDE MARBLE

Photos: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Planton, Foundation Pierre Berge, Alexandre Guirkinger, Maurice Hogenboom, Estate of Jeanloup Sieff, Conde Nast Archives, Mathieu Ferrier, Emil Larson

July 11 - October 25

June 13 - January 31, 2016

June 2 - November 14

The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, UK thebowesmuseum.org.uk

The Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK vam.co.uk

Yves Saint Laurent: Style is Eternal

Shoes: Pleasure and Pain

The Museum at FIT, New York, US fitnyc.edu

Global Fashion Capitals