bluestocking
This Pygmalion persona spilled over into his
personal life with a string of girlfriends—including
Toukie Smith and the “erotic menace” Grace Jones—
both serving as muses and walking advertisements
for Goude’s artistic will. One memorable passage
recounts Goude’s attempts to “Africanize” a girlfriend
by having her wear adhesive tribal scars and stilt-like
platform heels concealed under a long dress.
His relationship with Jones, for whom he staged
concerts and music videos, spurred Goude to change
direction both artistically and geographically. The
1980s and 1990s signaled a return to France, where
Goude dabbled in film projects and brought his
unique vision to the worlds of advertising and high
fashion, creating offbeat ad campaigns for Chanel,
Kodak, Perrier and more. His witty layouts starring
the famously diminutive fashion designer Azzedine
NATHAN KIRKMAN
Alaïa are particularly enjoyable. The feather in his
cap, however, may be the spectacular multicultural
Bicentennial Parade he organized in 1989 to honor
the French Revolution, captured here in photos and
planning sketches.
“Work must reflect, honestly and sentimentally,
my own personal values, obsessions, emotions, even
neuroses,” Goude writes, and indeed, everything in
So Far So Goude is intensely personal. Though details
are sometimes frustratingly vague—barely a mention
of his son with Grace Jones, for example—Goude’s
refreshingly frank stories are endlessly fascinating.
The images—350 in all, ranging from early family
photos and sketches to film stills—are bold and lively
eye candy. A captivating look at an artist’s progression
of projects that kept him true to his heart n Erin
Donnelly ~ So Far So Goude, Jean-Paul Goude with
Patrick Mauriès, 350 pages, $65/hardcover, Assouline
DESIGNER PREVIEWS
the authority on finding the best
architect and designer
773.604.4699
www.dpchicago.com
