Jean Paul Gaultier and Saskwatch

Friday Nights at the NGV are back with the latest exhibition The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk.  It features more than 140 garments from throughout Gaultier's career spanning the 1970s to today, in addition to photographs, sketches, stage costumes for tours by artists such as Madonna and Kylie Minogue, and footage from runway shows.  Each of the seven rooms has a different theme, which helps to group certain fashion collections together as well as themes that have run throughout Gaultier's designs.  There are so many amazing pieces on display, and projecting models moving and speaking faces onto the mannequin's faces made it look like real people were standing there modelling the clothes.  One room was set up like a fashion show with mannequins moving on a motorised runway.  There were so many highlights throughout the exhibition, but here are some of my favorite things:

After catching Rone's exhibition earlier in the week it was great to see his portraits of four of Gaultier's Aussie muses (Cate Blanchett, Gemma Ward, Andreja Pejić, and Kylie Minogue) on the walls in different parts of the exhibition.

After finishing it was time to watch Saskwatch perform in the Great Hall.  The nine piece soul band started their hour long set with "Give Me A Reason."  They played a mix of new unreleased tracks as well as selections off their two albums, including "Two Hearts," "Call Your Name," "Left Me To Die," "Born To Break Your Heart"  and "Keep Me In Mind."  Lead singer Nkechi Anele's outfit seemed a bit inspired by Gaultier, and I liked that two of the band members were wearing San Francisco Giants caps (they must have picked them up while in SF during the World Series).  The band finished their set with "Hands," which had everyone dancing and clapping along.  Overall it was a really great evening and I love that the NGV pairs their exhibitions with local and international musical acts on these Friday Night sessions.