>> hi, thank you all for coming

here today. i am the costume and textiles creator here at the fine arts museum. it is make great honor to introduce, to present this program today. just a few things come out of respect, photography is allowed, but no flash photography. we will be taking questions from the audience, and you can submit your questions either through twitter or e-mail, and we also handed out cards to you when you arrived. the questions will happen at the end of the program. if you are not planning to tweet or e-mail, please turn your cellphone off. again, it is my great honor to have this program and conversation between susie and jean paul gaultier. i feel very fortunate at the fine arts museum because in fact

susie mencus' son lives in the bay area and she comes frequently to visit the family. it is always my favorite time of in the exhibition, when she comes and i get to walk through the exhibition with her. it is so learnful. i wanted to share that opportunity with the rest of the bay area. one of my favorites, during the laurent exhibition, one of my favorite moments is one suzy stopped in her tracks. she said, this is it, this is what is true of any great artist or any great designer. when they do something, it can be shocking and avant-garde, but years later, we stand and look at it and believe it has always existed. i think that this is true of jean paul gaultier's work. i know that have been friends for a very long time. it is my honor to introduce both

suzy menkes, fashion editor of the international herald tribune, and mr. jean paul gaultier. [applause] >> the love seat. [laughter] i just want to know, can you hear me? please shout loudly if you cannot. [laughter] yes or no, you can hear? >> somebody said no. >> mic people, can i be heard? should i start? ok, good. so before i introduced one of the funniest, wittiest, most amusing and funkiest designers

that i know, i would like to start with something a little bit more serious. you know, in fashion, the reason that people laughed seem obvious when you see the exhibition of all it's incredible glory and excitement. but at the same time, there were real reasons why designers laughed, and one of them, when it comes to jean paul gaultier, is probably what is talked about least. it is the technique, the skill, the handwork, the knowledge. sometimes it gets buried underneath the fantasies of the close. but if you look hard, particularly those of you are going to go to the exhibition afterwards, if you look on one side to see the incredible punk can-can clothes, while, exciting, a waterfall. then you look at the central lie all which is the per region and

parts, you'll see the extraordinary crest -- kraft mentioned that can turn address and to have a jacket and half the skirt or can make a trench coat one of jean paul gaultier's iconic pieces and send it that is a trenchcoat but is also a pair of shorts. these kind of things, they're not tricks. their works of extraordinary skill. if you search in the exhibition, you will find that. you'll see the very early years that jean paul spend when he was learning paris couture. eglin said this young man looking very serious as he sits -- you will see this young man looking very serious as he sits and you will realize this is not a miracle. there was a solid basis. the other thing i want to say is that, you know, they're not many designers are around here changed the course of history. because when it comes to fashion, yes, there are lots of things that we see.

lots of excitement, lots of fralala going on, but we do not often see things that you realize have captured the moment in time. and that is what i think you'll find in this exhibition. but i do not want to talk anymore, because those are actually some of the believes that you have come to listen to jean paul gaultier and not suzy menkes. [laughter] so jean paul, i really wanted to ask you, thinking we're going through the exhibition from the beginning, the power you give women with the sexuality with the corsets, that actually was very much a reflection of what was going on when you did it. can you tell us about those madonna corset years? >> yes, it is a kind of a reflection of what is happening. also a reflection of -- [unintelligible]

it means i have been educated with women. when were very important for me, my grandmother, my mother. they give me and show me threw themselves an example of what women wear. women that were strong, a clever, human. and at the same time, sometimes stronger than men. so that i realized very quickly that women could be more interesting, more clever, because of maybe education or maybe because of the fact that they have not played football, to be quiet, you know, more into things to obtain. to obtain something. they have to be 10 times more clever than the men. they have everything it themselves already at the base. >> that we already know we are 10 times more intelligent. [laughter]

>> yes. i mean, like, men did not realize that most of the time. even if the need. the need, you know. so that, you know, truly, i felt the power of the woman. at the time, also like the woman at sleeve and that kind of thing. we admit -- we -- women reacting on taking out the bra and putting it on fire. the fire of the bra. a symbol. showing that we are as much as the men. maybe we first tried to look at men to see that we are equals. after that, it was one that would then it can be as mature, strong or whatever, than a man. but we also see the attribute of imagery, of seduction, which was

exactly what was into it in madonna. >> so we can all understand. when you saw madonna in her appointed course it, this was not the first time you had seen womens' underwear -- in her pointed corset, this was not the first emmy had seen women's underwear. you saw it with your grandmother and the work she did. isn't there a teddy bear in bastardi -- in the story? >> the teddy bear was there. [unintelligible] for a little boy, no, you cannot have a doll. you have to have a train. i was not traumatized by the train. maybe why do not drive. but also like a teddy bear. i cannot put it in a dress.

i cut bras with newspaper or a magazine and would use pins to make that bra. to me, it was like the silhouettes as of may be on the tv. we saw a lot of movies. so i tried to reconstitute the body of a woman. and -- >> how old were you at this point? >> i think i was around -- i was around, i was a round -- the teddy bear, i got it at 3:00, but i let him free at that time at the three years old. i let him free. i think i was around five years old that i started to take care of him. first, very important, i was --

[unintelligible] seeing on my grandmother. she had white hair. so i was putting on the the bear a little color that was kind of blue. after that, i do not know why, but i said he has to change. so it was more red, which was a strong color, too. then i try to make it black. that did not work. the texture of the paintings, because i was putting paintings on him, did not go with it. so i had to destroy it and start again. blue, red, start again. all the make up was the makeup of my grandmother. you can see an exhibition a teddy bear. i should say that he is a little nice monster, but it is a little monster anyway. you know, i have some affinity with air. i'd love the air. i love to touch the air.

>> i hope you like my hair, because of a drag queen's last night were trying to touch it. [laughter] >> for the moment, i am not yet a drag queen. but you can look at that photograph of me. thank you for the inspiration. [laughter] >> well we are joking about the corsets, you say it had a message. it was not showing the women in their undergarments for sexual reasons. it was to show their strong women. certainly madonna personified that. >> definitely. >> was it actually madonna in in 1990, the blond ambition tour, but this was not the first time you had done these bras. there was a link with africa. did i get that right? >> i did not get the thing with africa. >> i thought that when we see -- >> yes, yes, 1985.

the first corset dress, i did a collection. collections were big. it was a mix of difficulty. and the lingerie. one part was the lingerie. i did it i think in 1981. i came out with the collection in 1982. of course, i was inspired by my grandmother. but something else. musical. i saw a musical in new york. something like about the life of fellini. they made a movie of it -- only a few years ago, which was not so good, but the play was excellent. it was broadway. there was one scene where all the women were preparing themselves for the show. all in corset, like satin, salmon color.

and i was fascinated with it. i enjoyed the show, but i was only thinking about that, i must say. after that, there was the corset of my grandmother, and at that i have to do it, but it will be a dress. i did attend different dresses. long, shorter, even like a gym suit. i didn't like my souvenir of the one of my grandmother. and it was -- i did it like my souvenir of my grandmother. and it was a lace up. there was a party at the palace, which was a club. she wanted to wear that. she cannot drink because i did it truly like a real corset. laced up all along the back. no drink, because to go to the toilet, what can she do? she could not put it back. [laughter]

she would be in little to nothing. [laughter] >> the title of this exhibition is the idea of going from the street to fashion. from looking at things that are in the street and turning them into fashion or is it the other way round. do you in fact look at the street and see immediately things that are already fashion? are you inspired by that? >> i should say that i have, to be honest, i did not see very clearly by what i was inspired. i do not know if there is, like, a first-time -- i think it can be everything. but i know i was touched by the things that i think a beautiful, and things that are from the street. like maybe why i also have a kind of obsession, i love to work with denim. it was not so well cena that time. i am born in 1952.