The Talking Mummy

The result is something extraordinary. Not to mention a lesson in curating exhibits and putting up a grand show. Who else but a couturier and a showman,credited for the brazenness of Madonna,Kylie Minogue and Lady Gaga,could teach you that? The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: from the Sidewalk to the Catwalk is anything but a glass-encased display of clothing. One of the most technologically advanced fashion exhibits ever,the showcase is a multimedia extravaganza. You are welcomed by a small army of singing mermaids — mannequins with talking heads via an audiovisual projection of human faces. Among them is a talking mannequin of the man himself,explaining his wit,his style,his craft,even as he suddenly shouts out: “Hey you,back there,don’t walk away.” Everyone turns around foolishly.

The giggle-inducing animated mannequins are the most-talked about feature. But there are several TV monitors showing fashion show footage,neon installations,pop-art photographs,a large screen showing the many iconic films Gaultier has costumed for (Pedro Almodovar’s Bad Education is showing,with the very handsome Gael Garcia Bernal dressed up like a seductive woman. But my favourite still remains Peter Greenaway’s The Cook,The Thief,His Wife and Her Lover). If you are creeped out,embarrassed,or feeling voyeuristic,the designer has been successful in his intent.

Nowhere along this provocative tech-savvy journey do you lose focus on the clothes. A moving runway,like an airport conveyor belt,presents his unpretty,assaulting couture. Gaultier is the original enfant terrible of fashion. His favourite themes are virgins,mermaids and sailor stripes (“like Coco Chanel and Popeye”,his mannequin jokes). Madonna may have made his conical corsets famous,but his first model was his teddy bear,Nana. Besides sensational pop stars,he’s dressed several actresses for the Academy Awards,like Nicole Kidman and Marion Cotillard (she won wearing his mermaid bride gown). He puts men in skirts,not to be drag,he insists,but because Scotsmen wore kilts and waiters in Parisien bistros wore a panel in front of their trouser legs. He’s even hosted a TV show on MTV,and recorded a fun house song in 1989,Aou Tou Dou Zat,and launched blockbuster perfumes.

Of course,his fashion is alternative,eye-socking,gender-defying and incredible. But he also was chief designer for classy French behemoth Hermes,from 2003 to 2010. His influence — skulls,tartan,brooches and chains,and his desire to pique in general — is seen in many designers’ works,like Alexander McQueen,Manish Arora and Gaurav Gupta. “Gaultier shows us a society in which we’d like to live — one that’s tolerant in ways that go beyond fashion,” Nathalie Bondil,director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts,told the news site Daily Beast,when the exhibit was there.

This is clearly the age of the fashion exhibition in the museum. When McQueen passed away in 2010,New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted Savage Beauty,a sold-out and extended retrospective of the depressed yet revered young designer. Karl Lagerfeld and former French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld have a show for Chanel,revisiting their famous Little Black Jacket (also the title of the show) by putting it on important personalities like Kanye West,Yoko Ono,Sarah Jessica Parker and Anna Wintour. Burberry’s,digital project,Art of the Trench had the Brit label celebrate its iconic trench coat with worldwide showcases of local celebrities wearing the jacket. Yves Saint Laurent’s partner,Pierre Berge,hosted a heartwarming retrospective at Paris’ Petit Palais after the iconic designer’s passing. The de Young has also hosted Vivienne Westwood,Saint Laurent and Balenciaga shows.

Now would be a perfect time for the NGMA,both in Delhi and Mumbai,to show their interest in fashion and popular culture. If bureaucracy and lack of government support renders them banal,there are scores of young and hip galleries in the two metros,as well as in most major cities,to take on fashion curating in their spaces. “The idea of culture is evolving and it is no longer just what the elites tell us but how we respond to life as well,” says Tasneem Mehta,managing trustee and honorary director of the new Bhau Daji Lad museum in Mumbai. “Our shows at the museum reflect these developments and we are keen to show fashion and design. I visited the McQueen show and thought it was amazing. Fashion,design and craftsmanship are very important aspects of our lives and involve great aesthetic and skill,and it’s a very 19th century attitude to view this as low-brow.”

There have been a handful of showcases in museums — notably a fashion show by Sabyasachi at the NGMA,and a couture showcase cum meet-the-designer at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sanghralaya — but these have been mere seasonal shows at an off-site rather than a collection of their works. Interestingly,one museum director says people don’t like to come to museum-related events because the government doesn’t allow alcohol to be served,even though most international museums permit non-staining white and sparkling wine. It’s hard to find sponsors in this situation. “Louis Vuitton’s trunks were shown as a part of a show at the NGMA,” points out Anupa Mehta,art consultant and director of The Loft,an artist residency and gallery space in Mumbai. “Exhibits like Cinema City,curated by Madhushree Datta,bring together a multi-disciplinary approach. However,until we stop compartmentalising everything into high art/ low art/ fashion/ design or whatever,we are never going to open our windows. An Italian lamp costs as much as a painting by an established designer but people are buying the former more often. This should say something about the Indian consumer’s need for objects of desire and her exposure to trends,” she says.

Not just Indian designers,hungry for sponsors for monetary aid,the few European labels must focus on big museums and important art spaces,to raise awareness and invite interest,if not to sell handbags. As Gaultier has shown,you don’t need to be dead to appear in a museum,zombie mannequins notwithstanding.