Jean-Paul Gaultier's World

A fellow freelancer friend and I took advantage of our unscheduled working hours and visited the Jean-Paul Gaultier exhibition at The Barbican last week and what an educational treat it was. I remember JPG from his days as presenter on the brilliant Eurotrash which I was allowed to stay up late and watch with my Dad, which was way before I realised JPG was a designer!

Remember Spitting Image? JPG bought his puppet

The exhibition is quite large, spanning his career from the last extraordinary 40 years. 

If I smoked I would so carry my cigarettes around like this!

Along with key outfits from his couture and ready-to-wear collections the show features iconic editorial images featuring his designs, catwalk clips (my favourite ones were from back in the eighties), a catwalk show and details of which celebrity has worn what (you come face to face with Madonna's cone bras). 

You can get super close to the outfits and it's incredibly interesting to see the thousands of tinny tiny beads and intricate details only inches away. 

The faces projected onto the mannequin's heads that wink, sing and flirt are a little disconcerting at first but you get used to them after they blow a kiss at you! 

The exhibition runs until 25th August and is well worth a few hours of your time.