Jean Paul Gaultier Will Appear in Conversation at the Southbank Centre

Jean Paul Gaultier reflects on his decades at the forefront of fashion and talks about his forthcoming revue show, Fashion Freak Show in an 'in conversation event' with TV presenter Anita Rani at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall on Tuesday 23 July at 6pm.

The talk coincides with the first performance and UK premiere of The Fashion Freak Show at the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall, which runs until 4 August 2019, with a press night on Wednesday 24 July 2019.

From the beginning of his career, Gaultier wanted to show that beauty has many facets and can be found where we least expect it - for example, in an ordinary tin can, which he first transformed into a bracelet and later into the packaging for his hugely successful perfume.

In Fashion Freak Show, the designer shares memories from his extraordinary life and career in a spectacle where actors, dancers and circus artists play outlandish, passionate, larger-than-life, sexy, sassy creatures.

The part revue, part catwalk show takes an extravagant, yet tender, look at our times, inviting us into a world filled with excess, poetry and magic.

Gaultier was born in 1952 in a Paris suburb. He started his career in 1970 on the day of his 18th birthday with Pierre Cardin.

After working at Esterel, Patou and again at Cardin, Gaultier decided to start his own fashion house. He staged his first show in Paris in 1976.

Critical and commercial success followed quickly, and by the early 1980s he was one of the most talked-about young designers.

His menswear line launched in 1984 with the 'Male Object' collection, and in 1997 Gaultier realised his dream of starting an haute couture line: Gaultier Paris.

Throughout his career Gaultier has worked in dance, music and the cinema. His costumes for Madonna's Blond Ambitiontour have left an indelible imprint on popular culture.

Anita Rani is an RTS Award-winning presenter, one of the lead presenters on BBC1's Countryfile and part of The One Show team.

Having wowed the audience of Strictly Come Dancing 2015 (making the semi-finals) with her hard work and total fearlessness, Rani returned to the dancefloor as host of the Strictly Live Tour in early 2017.