Fashion
11
REMEMBERING THIERRY MUGLER: A PIONEER OF AVANT-GARDE HAUTE COUTURE by bethany james
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
‘I have always been fascinated by the most beautiful animal on the Earth: the human being.’ Innately creative, Strasbourgborn Thierry Mugler (21 December 1948 - 23 January 2022) lived to become the most renowned contemporary ‘ E n f a n t Te r r i b l e ’ . I n c r e a t i n g his first collection Café de Paris in 1973, Mugler began his journey to becoming a famous C r e a t i v e D i r e c t o r a n d D e s i g n e r. As Mugler designed the Alien Eau Sublime with its feminine opulence, spurring his audacious l e g a c y, h e w a s s i m u l t a n e o u s l y
preparing a new space for highfashion where the contemporary standards were ignored. This rebellious streak coined Mugler as a man who p o r t r a y e d t h e Av a n t - G a r d e i n higher voltage than ever before. Despite his theatrical displays amalgamating futuristic silhouettes with Metamorphic elements, Mugler declared that ‘the clothes [he] did were a direction of the everyday’. He was charmingly ostentatious in his fashion pieces which reimagined the way the world experienced the creation of garments. It was this straying from expectations that had him strike down all implicit creative rules. His theatrical productions, often lasting an h o u r, e v e n h o s t e d D J s e t s , p a r t y lights, and smoke to ensure an elusiveness experience. Even the t i t l e s o f s o m e o f M u g l e r ’s p i e c e s announce their entrance to the w o r l d ’s s t a g e : R o b o t Wo m a n , R e d C o w g i r l , Ve n u s D r e s s , We t Dress, Motorcycle Corset, and Les Insectes. These titles prove M u g l e r ’s e n d u r i n g a b i l i t y t o take risks in his demonstrations, using the hyperfeminine as a s o u r c e o f p o w e r f u l g l a m o u r. These entrancing motifs continued to reign at the top of the provocative fashion realm. Mugler dressed icons of the late 20th and early 21st centuries such as Beyoncé, Cindy Crawford, Lady Gaga, David B o w i e , a n d M a d o n n a . Wi t h n o t e s of seduction alongside selfassurance, Mugler gave space for diversity to travel to the forefront of fashion, changing the fashion world one step at a time. M u g l e r ’s models often became goddess-like space venturers who walked the
catwalk in manifestations of erotic fantasies. Pieces would be formed from eccentric yet timeless patterns crafted from vinyl, latex, metal, and faux f u r. To q u o t e a n e p i t o m i s a t i o n o f M u g l e r ’s l i f e ’s w o r k , ‘ I h a v e always been fascinated by the most beautiful animal on the Earth: the human being’, it is clear that Thierry Mugler was a remarkable designer of his time, marrying the human body and its fashion to exist as one.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
