Jean Paul Gaultier & Régine Chopinot : Le Défile. Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris celebrates a provocative partnership Maxine Park
From March 22nd to Septembre 23rd 2007, in Paris, will celebrate the 30 years of Jean Paul Gaultier\'s design career and his aesthetically provocative partnership with Régine Chopinot. After studying classic ballet, Régine Chopinot discovered contemporary dance in 1974, when she was 22. In 1978, she founded her own company in Lyon, “ La Compagnie du Grebe”. As of 1982, she introduced multimedia and cinema in her choreographies. In 1983, Régine Chopinot and Jean Paul Gaultier finally meet. They will collaborate for over 10 years:
1983 Délices 1985 Le Défile (which can be translated either as the Procession or the Fashion Show) 1988 K.O.K 1990 Ana 1993 Façade
Jean Paul Gaultier designing the 80 costumes of all her dances. She has now donated them with other garments and accessories to the Musée de la Mode et du Textile, for display, study and preservation.
The exhibition concentrates on 12 dances of the Défile, an insolent mix of posing, parading and dancing that blurs the distinction between choreographic extravaganza and fashion show. Le Défile extraordinary costumes were designed and made according to the codes which usually structure Jean Paul Gaultier’s fashion shows. His now-trademark corsets, wool crinolines, giant panties and jockey briefs, cushion dresses, panniered petticoats in heavy ribbed wool, conical breasted bras chased off, with the Défile, the conventional ballet tutus.
Be prepared to spend time at this highly uncommon exhibition, as you will be mesmerized in front of the screens that feature the 12 dances.
