X-ray Chic at Gaultier

Jul 8, 2010

PARIS - JEAN Paul Gaultier, who gave the world Madonna's pointy bra, went deeper in his exploration of the concept of innerwear-as-outerwear with an anatomical fall-winter 2010-11 haute couture collection on Wednesday of lean skirt suits and bustiers covered with rhinestone-encrusted femurs, tibias and ribs.

Dita Von Teese, the porcelain-skinned burlesque star, performed a mid-show strip tease, peeling off layer after layer of her sheer black gown till she was undressed literally down to the bone, wearing only a bustier that mapped out her skeleton.

'It was all about structure, about bringing the bones, the very foundation of what makes a garment, to the surface,' Gaultier told reporters in a post-show interview. 'It's about bones, but not in a ghost kind of way - unless we're talking about the ghost of couture,' he joked.

There must be something in the water, because other Paris designers, from Givenchy's Riccardo Tisci to emerging French talent Julien Fournie also fielded this sort of x-ray chic this season.

Gaultier was on-trend with the faux-nude bustier - complete with breasts and abs - molded out flesh-colored leather. Models in jewel-toned turbans with a stiff sculpted loop of fabric standing at attention sported long, kite-shaped gowns with pointed square shoulders, sometimes sprinkled with sequins, or leather trench coats whose fine pleats fanned out into full skirts.

Even the bride, who traditionally closes Paris' made-to-measure couture collections, was wearing a trench coat - a Gaultier staple - in bone white mircofiber with a long tulle veil. And because this was Gaultier show - where a stiff dose of theatricality is de rigeur - the bride was playing her own wedding march - on a matching white violin. -- AP