Fashion forward at the Brooklyn Museum with Jean Paul Gaultier

Attention, fashionistas!

An exhibition dedicated to legendary couturier Jean Paul Gaultier will be on display at the Brooklyn Museum beginning on Friday, October 25 and continuing through February 23, 2014.

This is the only place on the East Coast to see The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk , featuring contemporary fashion designs over the last four decades from the man who made Madonna’s cone bra famous. The “theatrically staged” show has already been seen by 900,000 people.

Lisa Small, curator of exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum, is coordinating the East Coast presentation. She told this paper that the museum has a “history of presenting fashion exhibitions using our own costume collection,” currently being housed at the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute, “so the notion of a fashion exhibition for us is not new.”

Small went onto say that Gaultier was particularly appealing because his unique views of society and fashion fit in so well with our fair borough.

“[Brooklyn is] Very open minded; everyone is welcome whatever your age, body size, skin color, [which is] is analogous to the Brooklyn Museum in many ways. We welcome and engage with a really diverse audience,” she said, “We are a global, encyclopedic museum and Gaultier’s vision of fashion and his influences are also global and encyclopedic.”

To mark the opening of the exhibit, a short video was released, which will be available for viewing for its duration. The video features Gaultier speaking about the Brooklyn presentation specifically. It also includes top model and Gaultier muse Karlie Kloss, wearing his avant-garde designs. It was directed by Stephane Sednaoui, a French photographer, director and producer.

Small said it was hard to choose just one highlight of such a “rich” show.

“The animated mannequins are transfixing,” she said. “A definite fashion highlight for me is the gown that features what appears to be a full leopard skin, but upon closer examination you can see that the leopard skin is really a trompe l’oeil effect created out of thousands of tiny, hand-sewn beads.”

The exhibition is curated by Thierry-Maxime Loriot of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, in coordination with Maison Jean Paul Gaultier in Paris.

“We would like our attendees to learn a bit about Gaultier’s amazingly innovative and beautiful fashions, and to have fun and enjoy the spectacular installation,” Small said.

Tickets, which include general admission to the museum in addition to entrance to the Gaultier exhibition, are available at advancetickets@museumtix.com and in the museum’s lobby. The cost is $15 for adults, $10 for students with valid ID and adults 62 and over, and $10 for corporate members. The exhibition is free for members and children under 12.

Members will also have access to the members preview and reception on Thursday, October 24 and can enjoy private viewing hours from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday in November, receive free tickets for family and friends depending on membership level, and be able to purchase discounted ticketed for additional guests.

The Brooklyn Museum is located at 200 Eastern Parkway. For more information, call 718-638-5000.