As stated in Unit 1, the 1980s and 1990s were an era of cross-pollination between fashion, dance, performative arts and other art forms resulting from the "Copernican revolution of look" (Yonnet) of the 1960s, the internationalization and decentralization of fashion and the increasing competition between fashion brands and designers worldwide. 

The fashion shows were not impervious to these changes. The subject and object of the fashion show were displaced. Driving sales by displaying clothes on walking models was not the sole objective of fashion shows. It became a test kitchen to emphasize the spectacular fashion designs and the brand they embodied.

A celebration of performative clothes and bodies and fashion as a phenomenon at the crossroads between (performing) arts, design, industry and innovation, fashion shows also became a metatextual discourse on the decisive role of fashion in a globalized and rapidly changing world. For many, a designer, fashion became an artistic expression, social criticism and anticipation, and a spectacular object all at once. Such is the case with Jean-Paul Gaultier's "Le défilé" that we will analyze now.