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A A visit to a dance studio always reveals ballet buns, leg warmers, and perfect poses that most of us can’t find. Dance Attic Studio in West London does not disappoint on an early summer Monday morning. Dancers gather outside smoking and chatting, wearing sportswear and crop tops. Inside, they practically float between different studio spaces.
The main studio is a different hive of activity, thanks to rehearsals for Fashion Freak Show, a musical revue based on the life of former fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier that opened this month at the Roundhouse in Camden Town, north London. Choreographer Marion Motin is dressed in a Manchester United track suit, with mismatched tracks and an expression in the zone, as a troupe of dancers moves through the show. Taking place in a reconstructed version of Le Chateau – a nightclub often referred to as Paris’s Studio 54 – it features music by Prince, Chic, Grace Jones, Divine and (slightly anachronistic) Amy Winehouse. If the dancers are gangly and out of sync at first, after less than half an hour, they look great on the dance floor. A man on roller blades, with a tray of plastic cocktails, just adds to the mood.
Gaultier watches quietly, occasionally calling over the dancers to discuss hairstyles and costumes. Clad in a dark chambray denim shirt and jeans, full fat cocks and rimless glasses, the Channel 4 presenter is different from the fetid scarecrow or kilt-wearing cheeky chappie presenter of the 1990 Pierre Et Gilles Brit. Eurotrash, however, soon, only a little. He still uses familiar French phrases, including “Oh, la, la!” And he enjoys making slightly outrageous statements. “London is sex,” he says at one point with an impish wink.
The Fashion Freak show, which premiered at Folies Berger in 2019, begins with Gaultier designing cabaret outfits for his teddy bears at school and that disco moment, the AIDS crisis and collaborations with Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Pedro Almodovar. Along with live performances on stage, his famous friends – Rossy de Palma and Catherine Deneuve – appear in video clips.
Gaultier is retiring from mainstream fashion in 2020 after 50 years in the industry. “Fifty years is good in fashion,” he said during rehearsals. Now I will use my passion for something else,” I said. Going to the theater wasn’t much of an adjustment. “i knew [the story] Because it was my life,” he says. “I could not write but I could know. [the story] At the Table” worked with director Tony Marshall, who died in March 2020, to bring the table to a whole new level.
“It’s not a wrap,” the show said. [of my career] But a full-circle moment,” and argues that this is a project he has been working on his entire life. “When I was nine years old, he went to the starting point,” he says. “I saw the movie [of Folies Bergère dancers] on TV and I said, ‘Oh, I want to do shows like that.’ The next day I went to school and made a sketch [the dancers] During class. One of the teachers stood me up and put my picture on my back. She wanted to embarrass me but everyone came [up to me]. I wasn’t good at football – ‘we don’t want Gaultier’ – but all the boys were smiling at me in the pictures, so I blended in.
Fashion Freak Show – as the name suggests – is full of fashion moments. It includes Nana, a Gaultier teddy bear and her corset outfit, which went on to inspire the famous cupped bra worn by Madonna on the Blonde Ambition tour in 1990. There’s also a scene with a Vogue-like fashion editor. Anna Wintour.
A large room in the rehearsal studio houses the 150 costumes used in the show, which range from brightly colored feather contrasts to clothes from Gaultier’s archive, including couture jeans, crystals and a leather jacket from his first collection in 1976. Every cast member. He has six to 10 costume changes per show. Motin worked on the production while in Paris, and worked on stage productions for Madonna and Christine and Queens. Speaking on the phone a few days after rehearsals, she said the costumes are part of what makes the show special. “It’s a show full of dance, video, music, singing, acting. It’s very different. It’s not a musical review, but a hybrid – like Jean Paul.
Gaultier has lived in London since the 1970s – it was his experience in sex clubs that gave the city an early reputation at the time – and he feels at home in the English capital. “In London, I feel more free,” he says. He remembers seeing a performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Kings Road Theatre. “I saw the poster, a black face with red lips and blood. I said, ‘Wow, we’ve got to see that.'” He says Rocky Horror has influenced him “a lot,” and the fashion freak show’s exuberance and abandon — right down to the strapline, “Strap in, hold on tight and enjoy the ride” — has the feel of now-classic music.
Fanny Coindet, assistant director of the show, presented the 2019 Fashion Freak Show production. Over a very dancer-friendly superfood salad lunch, she says that working with Gaultier showed her how important it is to evolve. “He always questions everything and always wants to take the show to another place,” she says. “The show never sits still and that’s how I feel the show can live.” With a smile, Coindet explains that part of her job is thinking: What would Jean Paul do? “It’s how you try to design the way he thinks. What would I say if I were him? I’m always wrong!” Still, the duo form a tight unit – discussing the costumes and making the show good for the new audience.
Among the costume changes, the story is related to a fashion freak show. “It’s really about the life of a man who has lived all kinds of things,” Motin said. A disclaimer is required – Gaultier did not go to fashion school and was initially dismissed by French fashion, instead taking a job at Pierre Cardin at the age of 18 – as an LGBTQ+ person in 70s France, and the love story between Gaultier and his partner Frances. The couple met in 1975, and Menuge was central to launching his own designer label. Menuge died in 1990 of complications related to AIDS. It’s part of the Fashion Freak Show, which also has a scene dedicated to reserved sex. In the Paris production, condoms were thrown into the audience.
“[I didn’t include him] But he is going to make it come alive again. [part of the story]” says Gaultier. “I started doing my collection under my name because of him… he gave it to me. [that] as much as possible. We are poor not financially but psychologically… He was even younger than me but he was smart enough to make me feel confident.
Gaultier’s experiences with being gay as a young man meant that he “attracted different people… I remember a girl at school who was red-faced and could see blood red veins in her skin.” She was wonderful because she was different. I’ve always been fascinated by different kinds of intelligence, that’s the theme.” Continued by Fashion Freak Show. The cast is diverse in ethnicity and body shape – a surprising decision given that dancers are traditionally seen as zero and white. “That’s how it should be because we don’t want everyone to look the same because that’s life,” says Motin, “and it’s inspired by life.” But Gaultier was not entirely satisfied. “One is still missing,” pointing to the seniors. “The last is forbidden, the wrinkles are not pretty.”
Coindet says he appreciates this inclusivity, which has long been a part of the Gaultier universe, especially what audiences are looking for now: “Everyone. [came to see the show in Paris], from special kids to established fans. I think it’s very generational… it’s opened doors for a lot of people and freed some minds. With dancing teddy bears, a diverse cast, a strong story and a disco soundtrack, London’s Fashion Freak Show might just be a little more free.
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