Jean-Paul Gaultier – Régine Chopinot: The parade

The exhibition presents around 80 costumes from several ballets representative of the fruitful collaboration of these two artists, “enfant terrible” from the world of fashion and contemporary dance, fond of insolence and nods to the past. .

Régine Chopinot and the Ballet Atlantique-Régine Chopinot (BARC) of the Center choreographies national de La Rochelle, generously donated all the costumes, made for various shows by the couturier Jean Paul Gaultier , at the National Center stage costume at Moulins and at the Museum of Fashion and Textile in Paris.

80 silhouettes , or nearly 328 items of clothing and accessories now constitute the most representative dance costume collection of the work of Jean Paul Gaultier, whose creations have accompanied each of the choreographer’s shows, from ” Délices ” in 1983 to ” Soli-Bach “in 1994.

As part of a partnership between the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and the Cncs, the exhibition ” Jean Paul Gaultier – Régine Chopinot / Le Défilé “, presented in the two institutions, looks back on the fourteen ballets, the fruits of creative insolence. by Régine Chopinot and Jean Paul Gaultier, among which: “Délices” (corset dresses), “Via” (crinolines), “Les Rats” (square tutus), “In La Rochelle, there are not only virgins “,” KOK “(humorous bathrobes),” Ana “,” Façade “(combination between the eye) … The most famous work is undoubtedly” The Parade”, in 1985, an atypical creation for sixteen dancers, actors and models. This show, half parade, half ballet, made a milestone in the history of contemporary fashion by reconciling a new generation of choreographers with dance costume, reduced to its simplest existence since the 1960s.

Régine Chopinot and Jean Paul Gaultier, both young creators throw themselves headlong into this game of jostling, playing with the same insolence a common disrespect of all academism. Their talents are expressed by breaking with established forms. They are driven by a determined desire to stand out from previous generations, a pronounced taste for mixing know-how and encounters with other artistic forms such as image (film and video), music, theater , literature …

Images courtesy of National du Costume de Scene, Moulins, France