With a guest appearance from Pedro Almodóvar
It was Jean Paul Gaultier’s AW94 collection. Four years on from creating Madonna’s Blonde Ambition cone bra, the French fashion agitator had just shown his Les Tatouages collection a season before, resulting in the sheer faux tattoo clothes which would become of his recognisable Gaultier motifs. Vogue described the show as “global village chic” – safe to say, the cultural mishmash of Indian-inspired nose chains and traditional African beading probably wouldn’t fly today.
For his next collection Gaultier went one step further, whizzing his adoring fans on an imaginary ride on the Orient Express in a collection that featured wools, silks, faux furs and prints reminiscent of traditional garb associated with Tibetan Sherpas, modelled by some of the coolest kids on Gaultier’s radar at the time. The idea behind the whole thing, according to him, was a magical train which stopped in the smallest of places, where local villagers would come to sell their wares. The things you could get away with in the 90s!
In the clip, a young, grey rather than haired Tim Blanks reports as fans like Pedro Almodóvar speak backstage about how Gaultier “doesn’t follow any kind of tendencies”, while the French Minister of Culture gushes that the designer is all about “new ideas, ideas which break tradition.”
And there, on a runway in an old train depot, covered in fake snow (which nearly resulted in a tumble from Kate Moss), models like Linda, Naomi, and Kate joined the also iconic Portia De Rossi. But most surprising perhaps, and not known for her huge array of runway appearances, was a messy haired Björk. After her early years singing with the Sugarcubes, it was around 1994 that everyone’s favourite warbling Icelander was blowing up with the debut album aptly named Debut. It was the same year she won best international newcomer and best international female at the Brits – with the award presented by Gaultier, introduced by Elton John and Ru Paul.
Gaultier, Bjork, Kate, Naomi, Linda, Portia – all presented by Tim Blanks – it’s as if someone wrote everyone’s fashion fantasy sequence.