Jean Paul Gaultier is set to shake up Australian audiences with his stunning creation, Fashion Freak Show — fifty years of pop culture through the eyes of fashion’s enfant terrible — taking up residence in Brisbane as a sensational centrepiece of this year’s Festival.

Both a musical revue and fashion show, the production depicts the sensational life of Jean Paul Gaultier against a backdrop of his generation’s most defining political and cultural changes. As author, director and costume designer, Jean Paul Gaultier takes a look at our times in both an extravagant and tender way and invites us behind the scenes into his world filled with excess, poetry and magic.

As part of this unmissable event, Jean Paul Gaultier has designed hundreds of new exclusive outfits that will feature alongside some of his most iconic creations on the Brisbane runway. Conceived like a grand party featuring an exuberant playlist – from Disco to Funk, from Pop to Rock and New Wave and Punk – Jean Paul Gaultier will surprise us yet again.

Fresh from sellout seasons in Europe and Japan, it’s now Brisbane’s turn to bear witness to this Australian exclusive season.

Jean Paul Gaultier and Grace Lillian Lee
In a very special collaboration, Australian artist Grace Lillian Lee will unveil a specially designed sculptural couture costume for the Fashion Freak Show catwalk. Grace was invited to collaborate directly with Jean Paul Gaultier in Paris earlier this year to exchange knowledge, designs, and inspirations. This collaboration has the incredible potential to further propel Grace’s practice, build her international profile and impart the knowledge and beauty of Australia’s First Nations Peoples.