A performance by three modern dancers opened Jean Paul Gaultier’s ready-to-wear summer show on 

Tuesday evening in Paris. The dancers’ costumes did not resemble any of the pieces in Gaultier’s show. But what the dancers did, their movement, illustrated the inspiration behind this designer’s summer line.

After designing costumes for choreographer Angelin Preljocaj’s new Snow White, Gaultier found that dance and movement suggest enticing possibilities for fashion design.

Movement in Fashion

Gautlier told reporters, “To me, clothes on a hanger are simply still lives. It’s only when someone wears them that they come alive.” In his work with Preljocaj–and other choreographers like Regine Chopinot–Gautlier saw that dance can vitalize fashion.

Some of Gaultier’s summer pieces incorporated flowing capes that, when worn over a leotard, reflect both the beauty of movement and the functionality of dancewear. “Here,” Gautlier said of this piece, “the idea was to create clothes that have several uses. You can go for a swim, you can also go out and it turns into a dress.”

Gautlier further explained his inspiration, saying, “Dancers have a very interesting relationship with clothes…They have a way of appropriating them and giving them a different dimension.”

Premiere

The Ballet Preljocaj’s Snow White, the work that helped inspire Gautlier, premieres during Biennale de la Danse de Lyon.

Preljocaj’s work, a romantic contemporary ballet, distorts the traditional Snow White tale in the lens of our modern world. It features the scores of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies and implements 26 Ballet Preljocaj dancers. Snow White runs October 10 to October 25 at the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris.

Image Sources:

• Photo by Getty Images
• AP Photo by Michel Euler
• Ballet Preljocaj “Snow White”