Jean Paul Gaultier at The De Young

I have not figured out precisely how to get these pics on Blogger in the order i would like them to be .... still, put things together as best you can and perhaps you will get an idea of this stunning - as in one is stunned - exhibit.
We went knowing nothing about what we were about to see, knowing and caring little about le haute couture of Gaultier. Our first glimpse, as we cued for admission, was the bare cheeked maniquin in the 4th image - an inscribed message to SF from Gaultier beside him and a quote from an ad for models on the opposite wall saying in very clear words that conventionally pretty must not apply. Ok. Fair enough.

The 3rd image is the room we walked into right after this. It is a room of maniquins blinking, swallowing, moving, closing their eyes and one - the Gaultier one, immediately to the right as one enters, is talking so clearly, so presently, so perfectly that you literally drop your own jaw.
What is going on?!
At first it is hard to have any sense of the extreme fashion, the exoticism made wearable, the mind that created all of this. At first you can only stare at these maniquins, listen to ( and look at Gaultier ) and then listen and look some more.