KCIDigital Archives

The KCI Digital Archives on the KCI website presents image and text information for the objects in the collection, arranged in chronological order.

Dress

© The Kyoto Costume Institute, photo by Takashi Hatakeyama

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Dress

Spring/Summer 1996

Designer
Jean-Paul GAULTIER
Brand
Jean-Paul GAULTIER
Label
Jean Paul GAULTIER MAILLE
Material
Blue nylon net printed with navy and beige moiré pattern of human body.
Inventory Number(s)
AC9309 1996-5-1

A nylon net dress made of stretch fabric to create a smooth-fitting silhouette. The dress not only reveals the body line, but the thin fabric also reveals the body to create a sensual look. Taking a closer look at the curved navy lines of the dress, it becomes clear that these lines are a depiction of a body contour. The superimposition of the wearer’s actual form with an image of the form creates a visual misalignment.
Gaultier was one of the first designers to embody, in his designs, a body conscious silhouette and forms of physiological adornment such as cosmetic surgery, tattoos, and piercings, which were manifestations of a growing awareness amongst women of their own bodies and their search to achieve the ideal body during the 1980s and 1990s.

1990s