paris fashion week: thierry mugler
(images via style)
it has now been a year since nicola formichetti was appointed creative director at thierry mugler, with design director sébastien peigné, i suspect, doing all the hard work. and things are, as ever (see f/w 2011 & s/s 2012), a little mixed. but i really think the daily beast’s robin givhan said all i wanted to best: “perhaps the best that can be said about Nicola Formichetti at Mugler was that with his black, birdlike runway creatures, he did not reference Lady Gaga. Since he is her stylist, this has been his most pronounced claim to fame but also his most unfortunate inspiration. This collection—which also emphasized white and included strokes of tomato red and marigold yellow—hinted at strong tailoring but still did not fully commit to the idea of clothes over costume.”
according to the washington post, “(J)utting bony peplums, laser cutting and spiderlike shoulder padding were shown on models who wandered several at a time around an arena catwalk, seemingly at random…the designer delved back into the house’s archives for inspiration, finding Thierry Mugler’s ‘Insect’ collection from 1997. But the graphic angular look was given a Far East revamping with long fox fur and mink kimono sleeves and the proportions of traditional Japanese clothing…Many looks will look great in photos at A-list parties, like a stiff micro dress in black silk gazar with a sheer hood. Another white sheath with rounded shoulders, a leaflike peplum and an impossibly cinched waist turned the model into a severe, hourglass fembot.”
and vogue reported that “Formichetti said he had taken inspiration from the idea of symmetry and graphic stylisation indicative of Asia…with the models coming out two by two or just three and then a hoard of them, it was just as though we had uncovered a Mugler nest and these were the queen ants running the show – with their protective and pronounced silhouettes. One looked a bit like Funny Bones, a jacket was folded at the shoulders to create wings and three warriors, cyborg-style, in black came hooded and in skirts that veered off to the side to look like fins and seemed to propel them around the catwalk space. Fringed and angular, it was less overt in the flesh and sexual stakes than his debut…and was more about the en-masse performance to enhance and convey this message of superhuman women. There is, then, a train of thought that Mugler is more about the impact than it is about the clothes.”
rather humourously, the nyt’s eric wilson wrote “(a)fter last season’s pompous display at Mugler (Lady Gaga fronting hillbilly teeth while cussing in a video, ’nuff said), it was a relief that the designer Sébastien Peigné and Mr. Formichetti took a calm and collected approach for fall. The showmanship was in the clothes: a peplum jacket made of gritty ruched leather; graphically cut black and white coats (some with furry caterpillar arms); and slinky dresses with notched straps that were abstract renditions of an insect’s legs. Mr. Formichetti noted a connection to Thierry Mugler’s 1997 ‘insects’ collection, back then an over-the-top affair with latex-clad supermodels wearing bug-eyed masks. So this could be described as a subtle tribute or, as Mr. Formichetti said, ‘a contrast of maximalism and minimalism.’”
meanwhile, wwd noted that “Peigné said the inspiration was ‘insects, reptiles and animals,’ represented in three parts. The first was all white, featuring jackets with giant, extra-long fur sleeves, fringed skirts and furry helmets; then came black and white dresses that had slim anatomical cutouts meant to emulate butterfly wings and scarabs, at which point, as Peigné said, ‘it turns very weird.’ There’s no better word for these clothes, which felt more energetic and abstract than last season’s beige brigade. There was a sense of seeing Japanese animation come to life, particularly with the final group of ‘ninjas,’ who emerged in a pack clad in all black with big shoulders and little below the waist, their faces partially obscured by sculptural hoods. They were fun to watch, which seems to be the big idea at the house of Mugler.”
and a cheery telegraph said “(t)here were furry armed, oversized armour like jerkin coats, mini-skirts with fin-like panels at the neck and hem, NFL-shouldered fur-collared overcoats, and a zebra-print Frank Gehry masquerading as a dress. This was just some of the white section. Then there were two smears of colour via a ketchup-red trousersuit with a black neck detail and a piccalilly yellow front-split skirt that sported long sleeves and upstanding shoulders. Black was represented towards the end when three barelegged girls in ceremonially semi-cowled minis came from one corner and then. near instantly, four more (in tights this time) zoomed in from another direction. Despite the gimmicky presentation, this collection felt far more considered than the previous two in Nicola Formichetti’s rein at Mugler.”
but perhaps the most (surprisingly?) optimistic was showstudio: “Power is the Mugler signature, and hence it was gratifying that despite the chopine-high platforms, it didn’t feel like Formichetti and Peigne tripped out a few dozen hobbled concubines in this obi ode. It also felt like they moved the Mugler silhouette away from an overt reliance on hanger-tugged eighties shoulders, even if by and large it was into the nineties, where Mugler’s more theatrical bent took flight…Women want to buy into this hyped-up vision of macho-femininity - couple that with the luxury of a cashmere shoulder stepped into an arctic fox sleeve, or a bubbly sequin jacket appliqued with thousands of swaying ostrich fronds like some fantastical animal hide, and you have a thoroughly seductive and refreshingly single-minded vision of how to dress in the twenty-first century. Mugler has always been single-minded in its propositions: that’s what built the label into a veritable cult back in the eighties.”
(view the complete show video here)
