Bye bye Gaultier

We’re going, I hissed at my husband. We’ve only just got here!, he said. Too bad, I said, smallest daughter in one arm, tugging at the hand of the other. Why did we even think to bring our children here in the first place? Was there a warning out the front, Not Suitable For Children? But no, quite the opposite! There were ‘For Kids’ Wall Labels throughout. Alongside a display of corsets made of wheat and straw, for example, the children’s Wall Label: ‘Which one is your favourite?’

Looking wildly for exit signs, I remembered, hazily, that another mother had recommended this adventure. A talented aesthete herself, she had enjoyed the exhibition, marvelling at the intricate beadwork, and her daughters, similar ages, had participated in the associated craft activity.

Out in the foyer we looked for children’s craft, followed directions. In tandem with Gaultier was the kids activity centre, Express Yourself: Romance Is Born For Kids, an NGVforKids project by Sydney-based fashion designers Romance Was Born. Our daughter was asked if she would like to make a beard or necklace. She chose necklace and was given a piece of vividly printed cardboard and a small container of plastic gems with adhesive backing. With the help of her father she started sticking on the decorations. She was sitting under a large pink sign that read: ‘Express Yourself!’

We had entered an Orwellian world of no-truths. Following a fashion meant not conforming. Emancipation meant wearing clothing that encased you.  A world where NGV Wall Labels talk about fashion empowering women, and their visual motif for the exhibition is a female model’s face covered in lace, including a star-shaped piece over her mouth. A world where model Miranda Kerr writes books on self-confidence aimed at girls called ‘Empower Yourself’ and ‘Treasure Yourself’ (and promotes them wearing leather briefs, stiletto boots, and not much else).

‘Look at me! Look at me!’, my daughter said, wearing her cardboard necklace.

It is not wrong to want to be looked at, I thought then, not wrong to crave attention, not wrong to want to be seen as attractive or sexy or whatever else we feel, not wrong at all. But as humans, surely what we really want is to be seen. Beyond all this stuff, these clothes, this skin, these body parts.

The identity politics of the 1990s fought for individuals who were part of disparaged groups (women, gays, blacks, children) to be recognised for who they really were, for what they felt, for what they valued, for what they did, beyond the stereotypes and labels that defined and confined them. Clothing may form part of a genuine expression of the self, even an important part. But if we think it symbolises actual power and freedom when the world around it remains the same, we are deluding ourselves.

‘LOOK AT ME!!!’

And I did, and then we left the NGV for lunch time, and nap time, past the wall of water fountain at the front, out into the fresh air. Our youngest daughter put her hand inside the water, quickly took it out, started to wave. Bye-bye, Gaultier. Bye-bye.