photographer would like to get your photos. >> with or without the kibble? >> all right. >> when there's good children's theater, it is good theater. if it is good theater, you would like it. even if it is for children that, is what i think. i know for the velveteen rabbit, i feel it is a story for kids and much

older people. it is about being a young child and loving a toy or friend and it is also about what it means to get old. in 1986 my son was 2. i decided i would like to adapt the velveteen rabbit. mind you, i had never read it as a child but heard it as a mother. my first time was a bedtime story recording. it was through that that i defined the theme and really determined how i was going to produce the story. is it true listening to it. when i made the dance i watched my son, since i

have been taking him to live performances since he was 6 years old. he loved it when he saw his peers or when someone was reading to him or he heard language. early when the bunny first comes out they go, ah, the rabbit. i think talking, flying, something they can relate to. and the adults love nana. nan na is the main adult figure in the show. the fairy is played by the same person. fair is very much like the love for your first child.

pure love. nature is a beautiful thing. all wild rabbits come from nature. i think nature is mysterious, beautiful, not something our kids get very much these days. there's fantastical spectacle because of computers and film. i think in live performance, in a way being paired down, you can be more successful and ask everybody to buy into the world you are in. if it is a simple world they will buy in, as long as the world is consistent that you have on stage. in some ways i also want that message for kids. it doesn't have to be spectacle but how you feel and having fun and taking things seriously, not about being blown away.

>> what is real? it is a thing that happens to you when a child loves you for a long, long time. >> i think it is a success. for the most part if you are three to seven, you sit in the seats and most of the time the kids are engaged. they laugh and ask questions. i think that is success. the fact we tour it and do it here, it is lasting. i really want to say the reason it is lasting is because of the story marjorie williams wrote is a gem of a story. if it was just an okay story, it wouldn't have lasted this long. i have had people say that is the first show i ever

saw, that is why i am a choreographer. i have had people that have come back when they are 20 and 23 years old. little kids and people in their 50s and 60s are telling me how much they love it. they come back more than once, they come back year after year. >> we came to seven straight about 10 years ago. -- 7th street about 10 years ago. the environment is huge. it is stronger than willpower. surrounding yourself with

artists, being in a culture where artists are driving, and where a huge amount of them is a healthy environment. >> you are making it safer. push, push. that is better. when i start thinking, i see it actually -- sometimes, i do not see it, but when i do, it is usually from the inside out. it is like watching something being spawned. you go in, and you begin to work, excavate, play with the dancers, and then things began to emerge. you may have a plan that this is what i want to create. here are the ideas i want to play with, but then, you go into the room, and there maybe some fertile ideas that are becoming manifest that are more interesting than the idea you had initially set out to plan.

so there has to be this openness for spontaneity. also, a sense that regardless of the deadline, that you have tons of time so the you can keep your creativity alive and not cut it off and just go into old habits. it is a lot like listening. really listening to watch what is going to emerge. i like this thing where you put your foot on his back. let's keep it. were your mind is is how you build your life. if you put it in steel or in failure, it works. that works. it is a commitment. for most artists, it is a vacation and a life that they have committed themselves to. there is this notion that artists continue to do their

work because of some kind of the external financial support. if that was taken away, artists would still do their art. it is not like there is a prerequisite for these things to happen or i will not do it. how could that be? it is the relationship that you have committed to. it is the vocation. no matter how difficult it gets, you are going to need to produce your art. whether it is a large scale or very small scale. the need to create is going to happen, and you are going to have to fulfill it because that is your life. >> 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.

in 1958, some boys had denim trousers. for my parents, they felt it was not very elegant. so it was not so nice, not so clean. so me, i fantasy about it. and maybe i was looking more and people that were wearing that kind of close, sometimes going to buy a jacket. there is a movie of marlon brando. but i must say, i remember it was a time in the 1960's, it was some boy from the suburbs. i suppose little gangs who were supposed to be bad boys. maybe i was a very polite boy. i was a little fascinated by bad ones. [laughter] it came from my fascination with movies, with james dean, most of

all marlon brando. all wore rebellious close. i find it very attractive and very interesting. of course, i should say that i love a lot of other things. cinema was also showing that kind of rebellion of the street. for me, maybe it became like those things are not that bad. and they're already recognized. they show some kind of people that i am not at all part of. but also, i use it may be after -- it inspired me. i love to make them all. the code of what is decent and a decent. what is elegant, not elegant. what is luxurious or not luxurious. changing to the time. >> let's talk now about one of the frontiers that you broke down. you're one of the first to do.

you went into the streets of paris but not to the streets that we know that are in front of the palace but the streets with a very mixed community. in those days, even more so. and that inspired you to do collections. this was in a way breaking a parisian code, wasn't it? instead of pretending these immigrants were not there, you're actually inspired by their colors, their hair, their clothes, and you turn them into your collection. >> definitely. i was very inspired by different people always. maybe -- with me, i felt a little different. a project at school. for example, not doing football. i was more touched by people that are a little different or could be rejected. they inspire me also because i

do not know it was another world. for inspiration, for example, because close very clearly, very early became my attraction -- clothes became nmy attraction, a subsection. as more attractive to addressing people than addressing myself. it was not my objective desire, my own person. so i think that if i looked, the market inspire me. people different in it the streets or inspiring me. not what was fashion. maybe i was a finding something to were very inspiring. laurant. i like the ones that are different and have their own style. i like the ones that are different. they have style.

i love them. so everyone that was different, i'd love it. i was not inspired by the jet set. at that time in 1960's, it was like very -- [unintelligible] for example, when i started to work, i am not all in the quatorze address. that is where some young girl -- among the young, i find more creativity, more interesting fashion in paris than in london. the sense of humor makes them to play more with the clothes and everything. in paris, i could see what was chic in what was not. one time i was working and was arriving at an industry job, and

i was wearing boots. they looked at me and said, [unintelligible] as a reproach. i thought, ha ha, very funny. [laughter] but it was beautiful, which can be true but it can be awful, too, a beige. it is not because it is beige, but it could be the absolute beauty, no. it depends how it is done, how it is made, how it looks like. so i was like, let's say, killing the french fashion. i should say france in general. so absolute. it has to be like that. things that i did not feel like. i think it's time i was going, i felt really in love with london. i felt more freedom.