Marionettes replace models on runways

WASHINGTON POST
PARIS -- Jean Paul Gaultier presented a collection at a recent fashion show, and he warned his audience in program notes that everything is not always as it seems. To that end, he showed a collection filled with photo prints on dresses and trompe l'oeil coats and trousers. And instead of models -- of which there were only a handful -- he showed the collection almost entirely on life-size marionettes.
Gaultier's marionettes bobbed around the runway dressed in pinstriped pantsuits paired with open weave knit dresses, overcoats adorned with a photo print of a trench coat, a zebra striped fur and slinky leather skirts the color of dying embers. It was a collection that allowed Gaultier to show off his skill as a tailor as well as his deft blending of masculine and feminine. He toyed with fashion's trends -- trench coats, sweaters as blouses, the emphasis on skirts -- and he gently mocked them while offering his own unique versions.