The First Time Jean Paul Gaultier Saw Madonna…

At the opening ceremony of his retrospective exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, designer Jean Paul Gaultier talked about the first time he saw Madonna…

“The first time I saw Madonna was on Top of the Pops.
She was singing ‘Holiday,’ and she had a fabulous look.
I actually thought that she was English because she was so stylish.
She was into the same things that I was doing at the time, like crosses, oversized jewelry, and fishnets.
The second time I saw her live was at the first MTV awards in New York at Radio City Music Hall.
It must have been 1984.
She sang ‘Like A Virgin’ in a wedding dress and was simulating ‘self contentment’ or ‘self satisfaction,’ to put it euphemistically.
The audience was mostly business people, who were horrified.
There were just a few young fans — and me, who absolutely loved it.
That is when I realized that she couldn’t care less what others thought of her, and I also saw how powerful she was.
I was a real fan of Madonna – I loved her music as well as her “personage”. I loved her being the director of her own appearance.
When I saw her first concert in Paris, I said to myself that she should have asked me to do the costumes.
I thought that I would have done them better. So, two years later, when my PR told me just before a prêt-a-porter show that I had to call Madonna, I thought that someone was playing a joke on me. But three days later, I asked if it was true and, to check, I called the number I was given. And it was her in person. She answered, “Hi, Gaultier.”
Blond Ambition tour was a real collaboration, friendship, and complicity.
She was frightened of nothing, and our vision was in complete harmony and symbiosis.”