Legendary designer Jean Paul Gaultier on his journey of five decades

The global debut of this fashion retrospective marks Jean Paul Gaultier’s first trip to Dubai. Jean Paul Gaultier: From A to Z includes pieces that have been worn by Cate Blanchett, Madonna, Amy Winehouse, Kylie Minogue and Marion Cotillard. A designer who believes that fashion must represent the times we live in, Gaultier has been talking about gender, inclusivity and consumption issues long before mainstream fashion started having the conversation. The exhibition, which has been curated by Thierry Maxime Loriot, has been made to be recycle-friendly using wooden crates (produced in Dubai) that can be dismantled and reused when this show tours other cities. There is always such thought to everything this designer does.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

You are a known wanderluster, and have been inspired by so many cultures in your collection (including India and Japan), but this is your first trip to Dubai...

This trip has been a discovery of a new world. I love it, it is an incredible city. I am very pleased to represent French fashion at Expo 2020. When I was younger, I did not enjoy modern architecture, even that of New York. Till I went to New York and saw the beauty. Now we are here in Dubai and the architecture is truly spectacular. Dubai has an energy and I understand why there are so many young people from all over the world who want to come and live here. This city is the new world, it is the future.

Let’s start with the letter U from the exhibition, as that is for upcycling, which is such a focus in fashion now. But you have been upcycling since your early days in fashion.

To be honest, I started with no money. It is good to start like this; it forces you to become creative and you have to find a solution. I made a plastic bag into a dress. In some ways, there is irony here today. They make recycled plastic bags. I upcycled a plastic bag into a piece of fashion. The bracelets are made with cat food tins. In one of my last collections, I used ties from the 1940s and ’50s and patchworked it with other leftover fabrics to make this body suit. I always love to make something old new again.

Do you think we need to be more conscious about consumption?

We definitely need to think about ecology and what is happening around the world. We can consume less things and maybe an old dress can be transformed and given a new life. I remember my mother telling me how they used to dress in the 1940s, you know at that time there really were no new clothes to be found. She took my father’s trousers and opened them up and made a skirt out of it. For me, this transformation was so interesting.

Talking about turning men’s clothes into women’s, genderless fashion seems to be having a real moment. You have always blurred the lines between men and women, as shown by the men’s corset on display at the event.