06/02/2022
By binternet
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Thierry Mugler: from couturier to director, the death of a multi-faceted pop icon<

French designer Thierry Mugler died on Sunday at the age of 73. From the mid-1970s, he had made his mark on the fashion world, and had opened up to photography, staging and perfume, while continuing to dress political figures as well as pop stars.

"The Mugler woman" was a silhouette model with accentuated shoulders, a corseted waist... and where hybrids had a good place: Thierry Mugler made corsets from the radiators of old American cars, he imagined dresses made of tires.

In 1995, for the 20th anniversary of his house, he succeeded in making a metal jumpsuit, complex to wear, one of the strongest symbols of his creation: the "gynoid jumpsuit", inspired by the film Metropolis, and the collection that accompanies it, are all the more striking as they accompany the designer's advertising campaigns in the 1990s.

Its own artistic director

Because Thierry Mugler was not only the creator of his costumes, he also imagined the whole universe linked to his creations. The legend - recounted in the exhibition dedicated to the designer - says that it was by making a little too many remarks to the photographer Helmut Newton during a session that the latter had suggested to him to take the photos of his clothes himself. .

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Thierry Mugler: from couturier to director, the death of a multi-faceted pop icon

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Throughout his career, Thierry Mugler has himself photographed his models, designed his advertising campaigns, and staged his fashion shows. He was one of the first to have conceived parades as shows in their own right, taking care of their scenography, their music, transforming them into cabarets: in 1984, it was at the Zénith that he organized a giant parade for 6,000 spectators, some of whom paid for their tickets. In 1995, it was at the Cirque d'Hiver that the parade of his twenty-year career took place... for 1h30.

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The dresser of the stars

Over the years, Thierry Mugler has brought his creations to the world of pop culture. He dresses Mylène Farmer, David Bowie, Diana Ross or George Michael, for whom he directed the clip for the song "Too Funky".

He also made a name for himself by creating a Mao collar suit worn by Jack Lang at the National Assembly in 1985: the Minister of Culture, wearing it without a tie, was then booed by the deputies.

In 2019, 20 years after his last creations, he returned to haute couture for another pop icon, Kim Kardashian, who had sported a Mugler dress at the famous MET gala.

The "Angel" years

But Thierry Mugler, for 30 years, was not known only for his couture creations: he was also the creator of perfumes, at the head of which the famous "Angel" and its famous starry bottle. Scents linked to the creator's childhood memories, and which are intended to be "gourmet": praline, chocolate and patchouli. It is also the first women's fragrance to feature a blue bottle.

Subsequently, Thierry Mugler perfumes launched many other fragrances, such as A*men or Alien, but none reached the popularity of "Angel", which is still among the best-selling perfumes today.

Cabaret and physical transformation

In 2002, Thierry Mugler withdrew from his fashion house, initially abandoning ready-to-wear (but remained invested in his perfumes). Operating a physical transformation combining bodybuilding and plastic surgery, Thierry Mugler, now Manfred Thierry Mugler, continued to practice photography and staging: in 2013, he launched his own cabarets, with "Mugler Folies" in France and "The Wyld" in Germany. For several years, these shows highlight her visual universe and obviously her surprising costumes, with characters looking like flies like cabaret dancers. "I don't really miss fashion," he said then.