Jean Paul Gaultier is known for his dramatic catwalk creations and spectacular tour outfits for performers including Madonna and Kylie Minogue, but now he has created all the costumes for a Berlin cabaret show, fulfilling a life-long dream of his. The One Grand Show is a cabaret performance by the Berlin Revue, opening at the almost 100 year-old Friedrichstadt-Palast venue in the German capital this fall, with a scheduled run of around two years, finishing in the summer of 2018.
“I dreamed of working on a revue ever since I was a little boy and I saw the opening night of Les Folies Bergère on my grandmother’s TV,” Gaultier says. “I got in trouble at school the next day because I was sketching the girls in feathers and fishnets, but I also realized that I could be loved through my drawings, as I suddenly became popular with my classmates.”
“It is even more of a dream come true that the first revue I am designing the costumes for is in Berlin, the city that defined cabaret in the twenties,” he continues, “and at the Palast, a place with a rich history and many reincarnations. I am flattered and honored that I can be a part of this production.”
Gaultier has created more than 500 costumes for the cast of over 100 performers, and sketches provided by the Friedrichstadt-Palast show that the designs feature many of his signature styles, from leather and feathers to Breton stripes, tattooed body stockings, cut-out tailoring and dazzling diamanté.
Described as “The most lavish show in Europe,” the Friedrichstadt-Palast say that The One Grand Show has had an investment of more than $10 million, and it “represents the living diversity of the cultural metropolis.”
Tickets are on sale now for The One Grand Show
Credits
Text Charlotte Gush
Costumes Jean Paul Gaultier
Drawings Marc-Antoine Coulon