Object: Evening dress
Designer:
Jean Paul Gaultier
(born 1952)
Date: c. 1987
Medium: Cotton, nylon, and satin
Country: France
Credit Line: Museum purchase
Object number: 98.98.1
DescriptionCorset dress in peach pink cotton / nylon stretch fabric; padded underwire bra, topstitched satin bodice inset, big zip at front neck and back hem; CB lacings
Label Text:Jean Paul Gaultier’s interest in lingerie can be traced back to his childhood, when he discovered his grandmother’s corset. “From that moment I became fascinated by the idea of transforming one’s body with clothes,” he recalled. Gaultier’s body-conscious dresses, inspired by girdles and corsets, helped to ignite a trend for underwear-as-outerwear during the 1980s.
Exhibitions:
- The Corset: Fashioning the Body
- Fashion & Textile History Gallery First Rotation
- Seduction
- Pink: The History of a Punk, Pretty, Powerful Color
- Exposed: A History of Lingerie