The Gaultier Retrospective: Teddy Bears, Talking Mannequins and Iconic Corsets

It all started with a teddy bear.

Encased in a Plexiglas cube and wearing a papier mâché-like cone bra (the first of many to come), her name is Nana and she was Jean Paul Gaultier’s first subject.

A stuffed animal not unlike the ones we all had as children, Nana stares back at patrons as they make their way through “The Boudoir”, an exhibition space built around an oversized satin cushioned centerpiece and housing some of the French designer’s most iconic lingerie creations.

So thematically contradictory is Nana to the explicitly sexualized contents of the room, it almost jumps out at you (which is a feat in its own right given the dozen or so attention-garnering corsets in close proximity). Nana attracts an inevitable huddle around her showcase, as everyone wonders the obvious: What’s with the bear?

As The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk progresses, however, it becomes clear that Nana’s not such a surprise after all. Not after you learn that Gaultier’s design ethos is deeply rooted in his childhood and based on an affinity for the unconventional when it comes to fashion and beauty.

Irreverently known as fashion’s enfant terrible, it’s another great irony that Gaultier is anything but. Easily one of the kindest, most jovial designers working today, Gaultier doesn’t take himself too seriously. If he’s perceived as a contrarian, it’s only because his values are in such stark contrast to rest of the industry.

Where most designers continue to work with typically underweight models to relay their designs to the greater public, Gaultier gravitates toward the more or less controversial figures of Beth Ditto, Crystal Renn and Lara Stone (he once held a casting call for models with a classified ad that famously said “the conventionally pretty need not apply.”)

And the Montreal exhibition — the first retrospective in Gaultier’s 35-year career — successfully and repeatedly illustrates that point.

With a carefully curated 6-theme display of more than 140 designs (some worn by talking mannequins — undoubtedly one the exhibit’s creepiest and most curious moments), guests are guided through the various highlights of Gaultier’s career to date. The designer’s sense of humor is on display throughout, as is his refusal to subscribe to the chauvinistic notion of women as the weaker sex.