Published
November 10, 2025
Jean-Charles de Castelbajac will stage a mammoth retrospective in Toulouse, entitled ‘L’Imagination au pouvoir,’ or ‘Imagination at work,’ to be presented in the French city’s Les Abattoirs Museum.
This important compilation of fashion, accessories, design, collages, and fine art works by one of France’s great iconoclastic creators will be staged in Toulouse from December 12 to August 23, 2026.
The exhibition brings together nearly 300 works, including clothing, design objects, drawings, and photographs, retracing six decades of creation by a visionary artist who pioneered the breaking down of barriers between art, fashion, and popular culture.
L’Imagination au pouvoir offers an immersive journey, punctuated by an original composition by Vladimir Cauchemar, and highlights the artist’s iconic collaborations—from Keith Haring to Robert Mapplethorpe, Lady Gaga to Malcolm McLaren—as well as de Castelbajac’s recent works created for Notre-Dame de Paris.
“Starting in 1980, I began using the primary colours red, blue, and yellow, the banners of pop culture, as well as logos, cartoons, and slogans, as a contemporary response to my passion for medieval heraldry and history. This limited colour palette became my signature, a stylistic imprint, a link between all my creative experiences, from my pop knitting work, the beginnings of streetwear, to sacred art at the 1997 World Youth Day and the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris in 2024,” said 75-year-old Jean-Charles in a release, referring to the official vestments he created for the clergy for the reopening of the legendary cathedral. Examples of which feature in the retrospective.
Among the iconic images in the exhibition are his famed teddy bear coats from 1988, one of which was worn by Madonna; and the graphic sequined column-dress from 1985 that read, “Je suis toute nue en dessous,” in English: “I am fully naked underneath.”
It also features portraits by Oliviero Toscani of Andy Warhol and Vivienne Westwood wearing de Castelbajac creations. All the way to historic objects, from his multi-coloured rainbow moccasins for Weston to his collectors’ item Totem lamps.
More power to his imagination.
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