Nautical but Nice: Jean Paul Gaultier opens Rotterdam exhibit tracing 35 years of designs

PARIS – Paris fashion’s enfant terrible, Jean Paul Gaultier— whose design signatures include the nautical stripe — has inaugurated his first international exhibit in the Netherlands.

The “Fashion world of Jean Paul Gaultier” at Rotterdam’s Kunsthal gallery traces about 35 years of the designer’s avant-garde creations including loans from Madonna — whose post-feminist conical bra is now the stuff of fashion legend.

More than 140 original creations, from the 60-year-old Gaultier’s haute couture line to his ready-to-wear, also include movie costumes loaned from Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar.

Though Rotterdam is far from Paris, Gaultier brought it a little nearer to his home by decorating a Thalys train with his famed nautical stripes that links the French capital with Rotterdam.

The exhibit opens to the public Sunday and runs until May 12.