At the end of May I did an overview of crochet in the Jean Paul Gaultier collection and I promised you at that time that whenever I got around to going to the Gaultier exhibit at the De Young Museum I’d take photos of the crochet there to share with you. Goed, I just went and here are those images:
The Crocodile Crochet Dress
Jump past the break to see the rest
I featured this dress in my original Gaultier crochet roundup but it was so much better to see it in person. The yarn is thick and wooly and almost looks like it’s straight out of the 1970s even though it’s a fairly recent design. Normally that would not be a good thing but it totally works with the texture of the dress.
“Jeux d’artifices” Kleden
The placard for this dress at the exhibit told me that its from the 2009-2010 (fall/winter) Movie Stars collection. It is a “crocheted dress with net, pheasant feathers, and snakeskin, embroidered with satin stitches and beads”. It took 110 hours to make it. What I’m amazed by with this one is how seamlessly the crochet and feathers are worked together in garment with perfect draping.
Immaculata Gown
This gown, from the spring / summer 2007 Virgins collection is a “crocheted lace dress with cherub appliques in linen”. The mask and headdress are also crochet.
You can see the dress in action in this video of Kylie Minogue’s “Like a Drug” song; the video played as a projection during her tour:
Irish Point Lace
The placard next to this photo, which was published in the April 2009 issue of W magazine, says that this dress is made from Irish Point Lace. I’m not familiar with what that term means and Googling it just brought up a bunch of stuff about Irish lace that hints that it may mean crochet or it may mean some other type of Irish needlepoint. Hoe dan ook, it’s in the same family and I think it’s a beautiful dress.
The Knit Dress, Maar …
This dress is knit, not crochet, but it’s one of my very favorite pieces in the entire exhibit. And just because this is a crochet blog doesn’t mean I can’t include something knit now and then! 
Besides, there is definitely some other technique going on here with lacework … I couldn’t tell if it was actually crochet (even though I got so close to it that I thought the security people were going to remove me) but it doesn’t look exactly like knit on the floral motifs either.
I feel like I want to say more about this exhibit because it was a really, really wonderful exhibit but I think it put me at a loss for words. It has stunning camera effects that make the mannequins look like they are alive and talking to you (creepy, but amazing). It has several rooms of stunning fashions spanning various eras of the Gaultier career. There are some pieces there that made me shiver. If you’re in San Francisco, go see it.
[...] awhile as a crochet artist I wanted to profile. I recently went to the DeYoung Museum to see the Gaultier exhibit and discovered that she has work on display there. I took some photos of what I saw and that was [...]