Fashion takes the stage at this year’s Brisbane Festival with John Paul Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show and a collaborative couture piece by local artist Grace Lillian Lee.
Brisbane Festival artistic director Louise Bezzina said this year’s festival would invite visitors to be daring and risqué, challenging them to look more deeply at societal challenges, and embrace frivolity.
Gaultier was dubbed fashion’s “L’Enfant terrible” in the 1980s for using old junk like tin cans in his collections, and blurring the lines between men’s and women’s clothing.
He became well known for his use of corsetry – culminating in Madonna’s iconic cone bra for her 1990 Blonde Ambition world tour – as well as masculine details like Breton stripes. The mesh dress (which is back in fashion) was first introduced by him in the 1990s.
His show enjoyed sell-out performances in Europe and Japan and, as part of the Brisbane show which opens the Festival, Gaultier has collaborated with Lee who will unveil a specially designed sculptural costume for the catwalk performance.
This year’s festival program showcases more than 1200 Queensland-based artists across more than 1000 unique performances and runs from August 30 – September 21.
It will also play host to the premiere of author Trent Dalton’s Love Stories – a collection of short stories about love. Also not to be missed are the annual Riverfire fireworks, and the Lightscape show.
Plus the free Brisbane Serenades is back by popular demand with the best music acts from across Australia being staged across a series of outdoor spaces.
For the full program visit https://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/whats-on/2024
