'The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier' Lands In Dallas (PHOTOS)

In case you missed the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' Gaultier retrospective this summer, here's another chance to experience the designer's most memorable moments. The exhibit, which features 130 creations spanning more than 35 years, opens at the Dallas Museum of Art this weekend (it's the museum's first foray into contemporary fashion). And, its latest iteration includes several new attractions: the American flag coat Kylie Minogue wore for her first U.S.A. tour in 2009, costumes from Pedro Almodovar's "Kika" and Luc Besson's "The Fifth Element" and specially created cowboy and cowgirl ensembles. According to DMA curator Kevin W. Tucker, the museum's galleries have also been transformed to give the show a fresh feel, incorporating graffiti and special lighting effects.

And of course, the key works from the Montreal exhibit are still in place, such as the corset worn by Madonna for her 1990 "Blonde Ambition" tour. While the Material Girl made Gaultier's cone-bra an icon for pop fans, Tucker says the piece has a greater cultural significance. "While designers in the 1980s often used enhanced shoulders to create an image of authority, Gaultier was proclaiming through these conical exaggerations another powerful physical symbol, that of womanhood," he observes.

Tucker says the exhibit is designed to highlight similarities between the designer's vintage pieces and more recent oeuvre--for example, the way Gaultier's spring 2011 line features punk references from his earlier work. And he also wanted to illustrate Gaultier's reciprocal relationship with pop culture. He says, "Gaultier's work remains an unbridled celebration of life and of cultures around the world, with no concern about what is an 'appropriate' influence upon haute couture and what is not."

Can't make it to Dallas? We've rounded up some of the exhibit's must-see attractions below.