Jean Paul Gaultier Is the Visual Guru Behind New Berlin Revue
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Jean Paul Gaultier still has a taste for fashion’s outer fringes: As curator and visual design director of the next cabaret-style revue at Berlin’s Friedrichstadt-Palast, Gaultier conscripted the alien-looking Canadian couple known as Fecal Matter, and the Russian performance artist Sasha Frolova, synonymous with latex and abstract forms.
“Falling | In Love” is the title for the show, billed as the most expensive ever mounted by the state theater owned by the City of Berlin. The production budget was nearly 14 million euros and the show debuts on Sept. 21.
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The project represents an encore for Gaultier, who had designed around 500 costumes for “The One” revue that opened in 2016, fulfilling a childhood dream.
The couture legend, who retired from the runway in 2020, said he’s “thrilled” to be back in show business with Friedrichstadt-Palast, which boasts the largest theater stage in the world.
Gaultier said his latest collaboration “makes me go even further in my creativity, as well as working with new talents like Fecal Matter or Sasha Frolova. I can’t wait for the audience to enjoy this new adventure.”
Part Moulin Rouge, part Cirque de Soleil, part rock concert, the “grand shows” served up by Friedrichstadt-Palast involve more than 100 performers, including singers, dancers and acrobats.
According to the theater, the word “falling” in the show title alludes to the sense of foreboding felt by many people in these troubled times, though the video teaser for the show depicts a bare-chested dancer falling into a thick pile of colorful flowers.
“We believe in the beauty of this world and in the good of people, despite everything,” commented Berndt Schmidt, general director and producer at the theater, suggesting that visitors will fall into “a sea of love.”
The show’s protagonist is a young, deaf poet who falls through “the gray asphalt of civilization” into a “hidden garden of love” where he experiences “the eternal human dream of a better world.”
Gaultier said he chose Fecal Matter’s Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran for the way they question gender boundaries and ideals of beauty with their fashions, and slyly poke fun at consumerism.
The pale, bald duo — partial to darkened eyeballs, zombie makeup and body dysphoria — founded Fecal Matter in 2016 and today boast 755,000 followers on Instagram. In 2021, they fronted a campaign for Converse x Rick Owens sneakers.
Frolova makes sculptures, digital art and inflatable latex costumes that are colorful, cartoonish and otherworldly.
According to the theater, Gaultier designed some 410 costumes for the show; Fecal Matter close to 50, and Sasha Frolova about 45.
Austrian crystal-maker Swarovski is also involved in the production’s costumes and the stage design.
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