About Jean-Charles de Castelbajac

A visionary creator, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac anticipated what today constitutes the basis of new creation: art and fashion, diversion and collaborations. His clothes and his art are inhabited by his passion for history, the world of childhood and Pop art.

Jean-Charles began his career as a designer in 1968 alongside his mother and created the company Ko & Co. His first manifest garment was a coat cut from his boarding school blanket as well as clothes made from mop cloths, thus launching the concept of upcycling. Spotted by Andre Putman, he was dubbed by Women's Wear Daily "the Courrges of the 70s" for his innovative work. He founded the house of Jean-Charles de Castelbajac in 1978, which he left in 2016.

Between the 70s and 90s, Jean-Charles was also artistic director of prestigious fashion houses such as Max Mara where he designed the Sportmax collections and Iceberg, which he co-founded in 1974 and for which he invented, in 1979, echoing pop art, the cartoon sweaters that have become iconic today. Oliviero Toscani was then photographing the Iceberg campaigns. In 1993, he collaborated with Courrges, chosen by Andr Courrges to succeed him.

Since the 80s, Jean-Charles has anticipated the current decompartmentalization between art and fashion through multiple collaborations with artists from all disciplines during his shows: musicians, photographers and visual artists. Thus he has created with Miquel Barcel, Ben and Robert Combas paintings dresses, with Robert Mapplethorpe, Keith Haring, Cindy Sherman and Claudio Parmiggiani the invitations for his shows and with Malcolm McLaren the music for his shows.

From 2018 to 2022, he was the artistic director of United Colors of Benetton.

In 2023, he created a service for the Gien earthenware factory.

In 2023, he received the Grand Vermeil medal from the city of Paris.

In June 2024, he installed l'Ange Gographe, a 15-meter long permanent trellis sculpture at 184 Boulevard Saint Germain in Paris, on the wall of the Socit de Gographie.

In 2024, he was appointed by the diocese of Paris to design the liturgical vestments and ornaments worn on the day of the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris, on December 7 and 8.

His art is expressed through installations, performances, chalk street art, drawings and paintings. In 1986, he exhibited at the Fashion Institute and Technology in New York. In 2006, at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, then at the Muse Galliera in Paris in 2007. Also an artist, he exhibits his paintings and drawings around the world. In 2015, he created a 3700 m2 fresco for Orly airport in Paris. In September 2018, he created a monumental work for the Biennale des Antiquaires de Paris at the Grand Palais His artistic work is the subject of an exhibition entitled The People of Tomorrow at the Children's Gallery of the Centre Pompidou from September 25, 2021 until July 18, 2022, presented at the West Bund Museum in Shanghai and at the Centre Pompidou Malaga in 2023.

His artistic work is the subject of an exhibition entitled The People of Tomorrow at the Children's Gallery of the Centre Pompidou from September 25, 2021 until July 18, 2022, presented at the West Bund Museum in Shanghai and at the Centre Pompidou Malaga in 2023.