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"  Photo: Clockwise, from left: Rainer Torrado; Paolo Roversi; Patrice Stable/Jean Paul Gaultier; Jean Paul Gaultier Jean Paul Gaultier may have been a designer for 37 years, but he sure knows how to keep it fresh. Just this past Paris Fashion Week, the innovative fashion genius showed a collection themed around a faux episode of Dancing With the Stars (complete with Coco Rocha dressed in drag as Danny Zuko). Bending genders and working with A-lister is a huge part of his repertoire as we discussed below when we interviewed him about his new exhibit, &amp;quot;The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk,&amp;quot; which opens at the Brooklyn Museum tomorrow through February 23, 2014.  The exhibit was first shown at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and after Brooklyn, it will travel to Australia and possibly Europe. It showcases clothing worn by celebrities like Madonna, Beyonc\u00E9, and Kylie Minogue, as well as costumes created for films by Pedro Almod\u00F3var and others. A short video\u2014directed by St\u00E9phane Sednaou featuring Gaultier and one of his muses Karlie Kloss\u2014has been released to mark the opening. It is the first international exhibition of this celebrated couturier&amp;#039;s work\u2014which sort of freaks him out\u2014because usually these types of showcases, according to Gaultier, are done for deceased designers. Read about that and other highlights in our chat with him, below.   Photo: Getty Images  How did the exhibition come about originally? The team in Montreal, who already did a Saint Laurent exhibition, [asked] me if I wanted to do an exhibition there. To be honest, I refused other propositions before, because I felt that it was not my time\u2014[based on] the fact that people who usually did shows were almost [always already] dead. So, I said, &amp;quot;not yet.&amp;quot; But when I met them, they were so convincing, it was flattering. I adore Saint Laurent, I respect his work very much. So I accepted. But I said that I want it [to be] alive, I didn&amp;#039;t want something dull and sad. I didn&amp;#039;t want a retrospective. I wanted a lot of the old items I [created], but not [presented] in order by years. It was more about what I like and what was important for me in fashion: corsets, strong women, androgyny, male objects for men, transparency, a patchwork of culture, and a different type of beauty. So there are some clothes from my first collection and some from my last collection.  What is unique to Brooklyn? I wanted to make a special part [about] muses, women or men who have influenced me because of their attitude...the color of their hair or their skin...[such as] the clothes I did for Beth Ditto, which have a unique shape. There is also Crystal Renn: There&amp;#039;s a dress with flowers that&amp;#039;s there in her size. Farida Khelfa\u2014there&amp;#039;s a photo of her wedding dress\u2014it&amp;#039;s not one from her debut. One year ago she was married; at the time I took her to [work for me], she was not slim like that. Now she&amp;#039;s super-slim and chic. She has a natural, popular elegance. There&amp;#039;s one photo of Tanel, who is my male model. The back [of the piece has] lace, like Mr. Saint Laurent\u2014an homage, a way of twisting gender.    Photo: Getty Images How does having this exhibition, considering all of the praise it&amp;#039;s generated, make you feel? I see that still I am accepted. It&amp;#039;s nice to also see the work. There are a lot of souvenirs and emotions from the many people who were there, who worked on it\u2014some who are now dead.  How do you design for somebody like Beyonc\u00E9? To be honest, I didn&amp;#039;t design especially for Beyonc\u00E9. She chose some of my things. What about Madonna? That was a real collaboration. It was the most incredible collaboration I&amp;#039;ve had. One year ago I did the last tour again for Madonna, I did one outfit especially for her\u2014there is a sketch of it in the show. Beth Ditto I love, Catherine Deneuve, Myl\u00E8ne Farmer, and Dita Von Teese. What is the process? It depends. There are some that are very specific.   Photo: Getty Images  Has New York had any influence on your work? It&amp;#039;s a mixed city of the people of different races. Also they have the elegance to wear something...I remember a lady who was super elegant wearing sport shoes. That&amp;#039;s the kind of thing that I appreciate: functionality while being glamorous and elegant. I love that spirit. Now it&amp;#039;s become a classic to wear a baseball cap. I will do that for my next collection with an evening dress. It could be nice. I love that kind of freedom people who are very elegant can use, things that are paradoxical, very modern, very beautiful, and very cool. What&amp;#039;s next for you, beside this exhibition? My collection. I am already preparing my next couture [collection], which will be [shown] in January. Pr\u00EAt-a-porter will be in March. So it doesn&amp;#039;t stop. We are always doing three collections. I am changing where I live: I am moving to Le Marais, the old part of Paris, when I go back. My atelier is not far away from that. It&amp;#039;s close to Les Halles, it&amp;#039;s very central. I love that. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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