In anticipation of the upcoming Costume Institute exhibition, “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” we’ve digitized collections from which pieces were selected for the show or catalog. This collection was presented in January 1997, in Paris.
Jean Paul Gaultier started presenting couture collections in 1997. Not only is this genre the most elevated form of fashion, it’s arguably the most French. For his Spring 1998 couture outing, the designer referenced the Age of Enlightenment, which flourished in Paris and at Versailles. Gaultier rarely takes his inspiration straight, and so both men and women layered their “court dresses” over shirts and ties, and embroidered frock coats were made of camo rather than silk.
The designer didn’t stop at subbing modern, streety, fabrics for more formal ones; he replicated historic materials and effects through painstaking craftsmanship. The New York Times explained that what appeared to be a toile de Jouy print was actually a motif created with beads, not dye; similarly the “lace” was actually cut fabric. Rococo splendor was only half of the story; Gaultier borrowed (today we would say appropriated) elements of the dress of North African Tuaregs, which explains the headdresses.
The impact of this collection came not from its romanticism or its “melting pot” sensibility. The real news was that Gaultier, a Frenchman, was stirring up and modernizing a well-established metier, this at a time when all eyes were on two upstart English rebels, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, recently installed at historic Gallic maisons. Gaultier is no enfant terrible. As irreverent as he is, he’s shown his respect for tradition through meticulous, and oftentimes, wondrous craftsmanship.
