Jean Paul Gaultier: Fashion Freak Show is presented by Brisbane Festival, Tourism and Events Queensland, Brisbane Economic Development Agency, South Bank Corporation in Association with TS3, RMG Productions, and Avex Entertainment, which is a list befitting a show of immense scale and entertainment. The ambitious work, which was first performed at the iconic Parisian cabaret music hall Folies Bergère in 2019, is appearing as the centrepiece of the 2024 Brisbane Festival as an Australian premiere, presenting fifty years of pop culture through the eyes of the “enfant terrible” of the fashion industry, the legendary French designer Jean Paul Gaultier, who has written, directed and designed the show’s costumes (including more than 200 of original couture pieces) himself.
The 2-hour experience traces world-renowned Gaultier’s sensational life through music, dance and, of course, clothes… meaning that the stunning work is a big and bold celebration of the avant-garde at the core of the haute couture fashion designer’s style from the outset as, things open to a revue of the teddy bears bares of his childhood Follies ambitions. From here, his trademark unconventional and corseted designs appear throughout, including in a number of fashion show recreations and vivid tableaux, allowing the audience to fully appreciate the details of its spectacle. A scene of conjoined costumes, for example, referring to the love between Gaultier and his late boyfriend and business partner, Francis Menuge, is wonderfully intricate in its intertwining and show of the detail of Marion Motin’s clever choreography and Per Hörding’s dynamic lighting design.
With Gaultier’s design of hundreds of new exclusive outfits featuring alongside some of his most iconic creations, you won’t fine a show with better costuming. It’s a feast for the eyes and also ears though, with its exuberant playlist of banging numbers; from the disco ‘Le Freak’ of legendary Paris nightclub Le Place to the punk anarchy of a London calling, via a bit of funk, pop, rock and new wave (Music Arranger and Orchestrator Nile Rogers).
Jean Paul Gaultier: Fashion Freak Show has it all as it takes its audience through Gautier’s journey from childhood dreamer, following his heart and feeling the love of drawing in class, through to being a backdrop of his generation’s most defining political and cultural changes, beyond just his corset and missile bra costume design for Madonna’s 1990 Ambition Tour. And according for a perpetual rule breaker, there is also nod to his activism, advocacy and boundary pushing through an ‘It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World’ fashion show, and provocation through its explicit shows of skin and sexual suggestions.
This is a festival show that is salacious, stunning, stylised and lots of fun as we see tutu-ed dances with Lucha libre masks folly about and a fabulous Act Two Vogue off, complete with up-to-date cultural nod. There is humour too, through the appearance of iconic Vogue editor-in-chief Dame Anna Wintour (black sunglasses and all) initially as fashion police in scientism about Gaultier’s worth and later convert to his cult of celebrity. And intimate moments provide some balance as a melancholic cover of ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’ covers Gaultier’s boyfriend’s fall to AIDS, with accompanying moving lyrical dance solo.
The extravaganza’s star is most obviously Gautier’s chic fashion, which is interesting, textured and full of turn-around type surprises (also featuring a showstopping specially designed sculptural couture costume piece by Queensland Indigenous designer Grace Lillian Lee), and supported by a soundscape and visuals on a scale perhaps never before seen in the South Bank Piazza. Its production values are not only elevated, but flawless, especially in the transitions and interplay between live animations and digital displays (set design by Justin Nardella and video design by Renaud Rubiano and Nardella).
Indeed, Jean Paul Gaultier: Fashion Freak Show is an energetic spectacle from start to finish. It’s exciting in its combination of musical revue and fashion show elements in celebration of the legacy of a trailblazing fashion designer (including the diversity at the centre of his famed approach) and clear in its reminder that artistic genius will also be in vogue (#theresadoublemeaninginthat).
