Nautical but Nice: Gaultier opens Rotterdam show

PARIS (AP) - Paris fashion's enfant terrible, Jean Paul Gaultier, has inaugurated his first international exhibit at Europe's largest port: the Dutch city of Rotterdam.

The location is perhaps unsurprising given that the Paris couturier is famed for his nautical stripe motifs.

The "Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier" exhibit at the Dutch port's Kunsthal gallery, which opens Sunday, traces about 35 years of the designer's avant-garde creations.

More than 140 original creations are in the mix, from the 60-year-old Gaultier's haute couture line to his ready-to-wear selections. Also included, on loan, are Gaultier designs such as Madonna's post-feminist conical bra, long the stuff of fashion legend, as well as movie costumes for Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar.

Though Rotterdam is far from Paris, Gaultier brought it a little nearer to home by adding nautical stripes to a Thalys train that links the French capital with the Dutch city 442 kilometers (275 miles) away.

Inaugurating the show Friday, Gaultier joked about his "fixation with stripes, because when I was a child I used to have a striped T-shirt."

The exhibit runs until May 12.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.