Manfred Thierry Mugler (French pronunciation:[manfʁɛdtjɛʁimyɡlɛʁ]; 21 December 1948 – 23 January 2022) was a French fashion designer, creative director and creative adviser of Mugler. In the 1970s, Mugler launched his eponymous fashion house; and quickly rose to prominence in the following decades for his avant-garde, architectural, hyperfeminine and theatrical approach to haute couture.[1][2] He was one of the first designers to champion diversity in his runway shows, which often tackled racism and ageism, and incorporated non-traditional models such as drag queens, porn stars, and transgender women.[3][4] In 2002, he retired from the brand, and returned in 2013 as the creative adviser.[5]
At the beginning of his career he designed signature looks for Michael Jackson,[6]Madonna,[7]Grace Jones,[8]Duran Duran, Viktor Lazlo, David Bowie and Diana Ross; most notably Demi Moore's dress from the 1993 movie Indecent Proposal, which was once coined "the most famous dress of the 1990s". In 1992, he directed and designed the outfits for George Michael's "Too Funky" music video;[9] also that year he launched the perfumeAngel, which became one of the best-selling perfumes of the 20th century.[10][11] Mugler's fall 1995 haute couture collection, marking the 20th anniversary of his brand, was staged at the Cirque d'hiver venue in Paris; and has been referred to as the "Woodstock of Fashion", for having over 300 designed looks, an elaborate set design, dozens of high-profile supermodels and a performance from James Brown.[12][13]
1984 pleated gold lamé dress[21]1988 Flame Corset & red power suit1990 'Rainbow Dress' (Indianapolis Museum of Art exhibit)Automobile dress and motorcycle bustier
Mugler designed for the London boutiques Mr. Freedom and Mother Wouldn't Like It in the 1960s.[22] In 1971, he began designing clothes for Karim,[23] already showing the broad-shouldered, 1940s-derived looks he would become famous for in later years.[24] In 1972, his full-skirted raincoat became a hit.[25] At the age of 24, Mugler moved to Paris. He began designing clothes for Gudule, a Parisian boutique. At 26, he began to design for a variety of large ready-to-wear fashion houses in Paris, Milan, London and Barcelona.[20]
In 1973, Mugler created his first personal collection called "Café de Paris". The style of the collection was both sophisticated and urban. Melka Tréanton, a powerful fashion editor, helped to launch his career. In 1976, she asked him to show his work in Tokyo for an event organized by Shiseido.[26] The 1977 showing of his spring 1978 line displayed a punk influence.[27][28] In 1978, he opened his first Paris boutique at the Place des Victoires in the 1er Arrondissement and rapidly gained attention as among the most extreme of the Fall 1978 broad-shoulder brigade of designers,[29][30] with a penchant for mid-20th-century sci-fi themes[31][32][33] and exaggerated 1940s-50s-style glamour marked by sharply constructed tailoring. He used exclusively Maud Frizon footwear in his late seventies-early eighties women's collections, the most influential shoe designer of the period.[34] At the same time, Mugler launched a fashion collection for men. He would continue into the following decade with his 1940s-style shoulders on 1950s-tailored suits[35] amid retrograde Wagnerian showmanship.[36][37]
During the 1980s and 1990s Mugler became an internationally recognized designer, often grouped with his friends Claude Montana[38] and Azzedine Alaïa[39][40][41] but known especially for his shapely suits,[42] and his collections garnered much commercial success. Except for a couple of sedate salon presentations in 1986 and 1987[43][44][45] (when he also reduced his shoulder padding),[46] his fashion shows were extravagant affairs held in arena-like environments[47][48][49] and the collections associated with them had themes,[50] sci-fi[51] and cavewoman themes[52] in the late seventies, celestial themes later,[53] a 60s theme one season,[54][55] an Africa theme another,[56] a vampire-devil theme the next,[57] and an aquatic theme the next,[58] with ongoing creative motifs that would span multiple collections, like his late-eighties inclusion of garments and accessories modeled after the tailfins and chrome trim of 1950s U.S. automobiles,[59][60][61] most recognizably 1959 Cadillacs.[62]
Mugler published his first photography book in 1988, Thierry Mugler: Photographer.[65] This was followed by a monograph in 1999, titled Fashion Fetish Fantasy, which assembles photos of his creations.[66]
Mugler also directed short films, advertising films and video clips. He regularly designed costumes for musical comedies, concerts, operas and the theatre (including Macbeth for the Comédie Française). He worked with Robert Altman and George Michael (he directed the video for Michael's "Too Funky" in 1992). He also directed the first advertising film for one of his fragrances, Alien.
Clarins has held the rights to his name Thierry Mugler since 1997.[67]
Retirement from fashion
Clarins shuttered the ready-to-wear component of Mugler's brand in 2003, due to financial losses. It kept the perfume division open as it was profitable.[68] Mugler left fashion in 2002.[69] When asked about the subject, he said: "Fashion is beautiful, 3-D art on a human being. But it wasn't enough, which is why I went on to create in other ways. For me, it wasn't the right tool anymore. But perfume still interests me".[70]
In 2002, Mugler collaborated with the Cirque du Soleil. He directed "Extravaganza", one of the scenes of Zumanity, and also created all of the costumes and the identity of the characters in the show.
In 2008, the Mugler brand launched Thierry Mugler Beauty, a high-end line of cosmetics.
In September 2010, Nicola Formichetti was announced to be the Creative Director of the Thierry Mugler brand. He changed the brand name to MUGLER, removing the first name, and in January 2011, he launched the revival of the brand's menswear collection in collaboration with Romain Kremer.[72]
An April 2010 New York Times story discussed Mugler's cosmetic transformation. "[Mugler has] taken to calling himself Manfred and transformed his body...into what is apparently a 240-pound spectacle of muscle and nipple and tattoo..."[67]
With over two years of being the creative director of MUGLER, Formichetti announced in April 2013 that he and the fashion house would be parting ways. Formichetti left MUGLER to work for the Italian brand Diesel.[73]
Despite retiring from his brand in 2003, he made the exception to design under his name "House of Mugler" for the Met Gala in 2019 and for Kim Kardashian. Getting his inspiration from Sophia Loren in the film Boy on a Dolphin, Mugler envisioned a wet California girl; hence the creation of the "wet couture dress".[76][77]
The American designer Casey Cadwallader was named Mugler's new creative director in December 2017.[78][79] During the period of the pandemic, Mugler skipped runways for video shows that were co-created with DIS magazine's spin-off, Torso Solutions. Megan Thee Stallion, Chloe Sevigny, Bella Hadid, and Eartheater were featured in the Mugler Spring 2022 Ready-to-Wear Collection video which ended with a brief homage to the late Mugler. The homage was dancing feature by prima ballerina Maria Kochetkova and vogueing superstar Barbie Swaee.[80]
After an almost three year hiatus from runway shows, Mugler returned to an in-person show in Paris FW 2023. The runway featured models Adut Akech, Paloma Elsesser, Eva Herzigova, Ziwe, Arca and Memphy.[81] An image was shown on an extra-large TV screen flanked by a staircase in the middle of the runway fusing digital with IRL.
Mugler's first perfume appeared in 1992 and was called "Angel". It contains a combination of praline and chocolate mixed with a strong accord of patchouli. It would be a part of a new fragrance type called gourmand. The Angel bottle, in the shape of a faceted star, was created by the Brosse Master Glassmakers. Fans of the fragrance include Diana Ross, Barbara Walters, Eva Mendes and Hillary Clinton.[82]
In 1996, Mugler followed up Angel with a male version named Angel Men or A*Men. This fragrance includes notes of caramel, coffee, vanilla, patchouli and honey.[83]
In 2005, Alien was created, the second major Thierry Mugler fragrance. Also in 2005, Mugler launched the "Thierry Mugler Perfume Workshops", which are open to the general public and led by specialists of the perfumery and oenology world.[84]
In 2006, Mugler completed a project for the launch of Tom Tykwer's film Perfume. In collaboration with the IFF company, Mugler created a box set of fifteen compositions.[85]
During 2007, still following the metamorphosis theme, Mugler launched Mirror, Mirror, a collection of five fragrances, created as "perfume-trickery" to "enhance one's presence".[86]
Angel and Alien together produce about $280 million in sales annually.[87]
In 2010, the fragrance Womanity was released by the House of Mugler.[88]
Angel Muse was released in 2015; Angel Nova was released in June 2020.[89] The most recent Angel flanker is Angel Elixir, released in February 2023 with a campaign starring Hunter Schafer.[90]
Legacy
In later years, Mugler's vintage designs saw a significant resurgence among celebrities, including Lady Gaga in the music video for "Telephone", and Cardi B who worked with Mugler, often wearing his vintage designs on red carpets and music videos, as well as mentioning the brand in the song "Wild Side".[91][92] His vintage designs are among the most coveted luxury vintage brands for Generation Z consumers, according to Teen Vogue.[93]
Mugler was openly gay and a longtime bodybuilder.[95][96] Following his departure from fashion he became reclusive, went by his first name (Manfred) and began extensive bodybuilding. In 2019, he said "Thierry Mugler" was a label and a brand, and as such he wanted to move on to other things.[69]
Mugler had several accidents that changed his appearance. His nose was destroyed in a jeep crash. A motorcycle accident involved steel cables which saw Mugler have a piece of metal removed from his leg. In an interview with Interview magazine, Mugler stated, "I asked another surgeon if he could do some things to my chin, and then I was happy to get the bloody anesthesia. He actually took a piece of bone from my hip and put it on my chin, so I don't have any plastic or silicone. It's all bones. I wanted my face to represent progress, because after years of being a thin, charming dancer, I wanted to be a warrior. I've done so much in my life. I've fought so much. I'm a superhero, so it's normal to have the face of one."[97]
Mugler died of natural causes at his residence in Vincennes near Paris, on 23 January 2022, at the age of 73.[96][98]
^Hyde, Nina S. (23 October 1978). "Getting in Shape". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 February 2022. Mugler's English is nearly perfect. He picked it up while designing for two way-out boutiques in London - Mr. Freedom and Mother Wouldn't Like It - in the mid-1960s.
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1971". Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 319. ISBN0-670-80172-0. Thierry Mugler (for Karim) velvet jersey, bias-cut skirt and blouse.
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1971". Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 322. ISBN0-670-80172-0. Thierry Mugler showed his first collection in Paris, which concentrated on an angular, wide-shouldered cut reminiscent of the forties.
^Hyde, Nina S. (23 October 1978). "Getting in Shape". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 February 2022. There were short-term jobs with firms in London and Paris, with limited success until six years ago, when he designed a raincoat with a full skirt that sold by the thousands.
^Hyde, Nina S. (24 October 1977). "Thinking Big for Spring". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 February 2022. There is punk influence at Thierry Mugler, including a punk model with fluorescent yellow hair...
^Hyde, Nina S. (29 October 1977). "And Now 'Punk Chic'". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 April 2022. At Thierry Mugler, black leather and safety-pin jewelry showed up on the runway worn by the cool, blonde [French punk icon] Edwige.
^Morris, Bernadine (9 April 1979). "Paris Fashions Unveiled in Super Bowl Style". The New York Times. p. D8. Retrieved 8 December 2021. Montana and Mugler both pioneered the giant shoulder‐pad movement last year [1978]...
^Hyde, Nina S. (23 October 1978). "Getting in Shape". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 February 2022. He explains clearly why he chooses this silhouette: 'Big shoulders give a woman a sense of grandeur and height and presence'.
^Duka, John (13 November 1978). "Paris is Yesterday". New York. Vol. 11, no. 46. pp. 111–112. Retrieved 11 December 2021. [I]f [Paris designers] have their way, American women will be wearing big, big, big padded shoulders...On the Flash Gordon side of French ready-to-wear Retro are such designers as Claude Montana, Thierry Mugler, and France Andrevie....At Mugler,...[it took the form of] a big-shouldered Flash Gordon jacket...
^Russell, Mary (8 April 1979). "Fashion/Beauty Fallout from Paris". The New York Times. p. SM19. Retrieved 13 December 2021. The Paris avant‐garde designers Thierry Mugler and Claude Montana continue taking fashion risks and making headlines with futuristic leathers and knits....Thierry Mugler loves the Krypton scenes from Superman, but his futuristic clothes are real...
^"Fashion View". The New York Times. 30 December 1979. p. SM6. Retrieved 10 December 2021. ...Thierry Mugler's Star Trekesque gigantic shoulders....
^Morris, Bernadine (27 February 1983). "The Directions of the Innovators". The New York Times. p. 132. Retrieved 15 December 2021. Today's avant-garde designers -including the Frenchmen Claude Montana, Thierry Mugler, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Azzedine Alaia - strike out in many directions. But, while some seem radical, they are actually reworking themes from the past, borrowing from periods before the 1960's.
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1976-1986". Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 345. ISBN0-670-80172-0. Mugler...present[ed] plastic breastplates, space suits, three-foot-wide shoulders, molded nipples, cinched torsos and tottering high heels.
^Hyde, Nina S. (16 September 1978). "Fall Fashion Blitz: The Show's the Thing for Washington Stores". The Washington Post. Retrieved 27 March 2022. Thierry Mugler found that his audience at Bloomingdale's one evening included a group of kids shopping with their parents. He admonished one store executive: 'You know, my clothes are not for children'.
^Russell, Mary (1 July 1977). "Paris Signals". Vogue. USA: 151. Thierry [Mugler] and Claude Montana speak to each other every day...There is no competition among these designers; they all admire each other...
^Morris, Bernadine (1 November 1985). "Provocative is the Word for Spring". The New York Times. p. A22. Retrieved 14 December 2021. [Alaïa] went on to influence the cut of the clothes of his friends Claude Montana and Thierry Mugler.
^Morris, Bernadine (21 September 1982). "Notes on Fashion". The New York Times. p. B1. Retrieved 13 December 2021. ...[H]ow explain the resurgence of short, tight skirts, body-cupping knitted dresses, spindly heels and other constricting clothes...[f]avored by...such designers as Azzedine Alaia, Thierry Mugler and Claude Montana[?]...
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1976-1986". Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 345. ISBN0-670-80172-0. Like Gaultier and Montana, Mugler married couture traditions with cult dressing....The overt sexuality of Mugler's clothes was upstaged by his close friend Azzedine Alaïa...
^Cunningham, Bill (1 March 1989). "Designers of the World, Unite!". Details. New York, NY: Details Publishing Corp. VII (9): 304. ISSN0740-4921. ...[B]uyers and clients recognized – and ordered – [Mugler's] wonderfully tailored suits.
^Morris, Bernadine (18 October 1986). "Mugler: Softer Effects". The New York Times: 34. Retrieved 4 April 2022. Thierry Mugler, whose name has been synonymous with elaborately staged fashion shows, offered a straightforward presentation for the first time in his showroom at 130 Rue du Faubourg St. Honore. Six shows, spread over the first three days of the spring and summer openings here, each played to audiences of about 100 people. It was quite possible to see the clothes clearly and not be mesmerized by theatrical effects.
^Cunningham, Bill (1 March 1988). "Fashionating Rhythm". Details. New York, NY: Details Publishing Corp. VI (8): 120. ISSN0740-4921. For the last year [1987], Mugler had successfully retreated to intimate showroom presentations...
^Cunningham, Bill (1 March 1987). "The Collections Spring Forward". Details. New York, NY: Details Publishing Corp. VI (3): 104. ISSN0740-4921. Thierry Mugler...chang[ed] the location of his show to the intimacy of a small 150-seat salon, rather than mounting his customary spectacle for 2500–5000 viewers...
^Cunningham, Bill (1 March 1987). "The Collections Spring Forward". Details Magazine. New York, NY: Details Publishing Corp. VI (3): 102, 120. ISSN0740-4921. ...Mugler broke away from his heroic silhouette to a softer proportioned one....moving away from his heavily padded goddesses...in soft, delicate dresses and transparent gowns...with demure puffed sleeves.
^McColl, Patricia (18 March 1984). "Fashion Preview". The New York Times. p. 79. Retrieved 14 December 2021. Instead of a classic runway exhibition, Mugler has taken over the Salle du Zenith (a pop-music concert hall) and sold tickets for 4,000 of the 6,000 seats because, as he has always claimed, 'fashion is a spectacle'.
^Hyde, Nina (24 March 1984). "Fashions on Faith". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 February 2022. On a runway that stretched like wings across Le Zenith, an enormous tent created for rock concerts[,]...Mugler [presented an]...hour-plus show....[M]ore than 6,000 at[tended] the sold-out Mugler show.
^Cunningham, Bill (1 March 1988). "Fashionating Rhythm". Details. New York, NY: Details Publishing Corp. VI (8): 120. ISSN0740-4921. Mugler...returned to a grand-scale theatrical production....Like previous Mugler spectacles, the production dwarfed many of the designs. There is no denying the entertainment value of Mugler's show...
^Cunningham, Bill (1 March 1989). "Designers of the World, Unite!". Detailis. New York, NY: Details Publishing Corp. VII (9): 303. ISSN0740-4921. Mugler...has always built his collections around a theme, often a tightrope walk between the magical and the ridiculous.
^Russell, Mary (2 April 1978). "Fall Fashion Preview". The New York Times. p. SM19. Retrieved 13 December 2021. Thierry Mugler goes sci‐fi with Flash Gordon, and walks on the wild side with shiny leather jackets and epauleted cadets.
^Morris, Bernadine (15 October 1979). "In Paris, High Fashion's Latest Trip is to Outer Space". The New York Times: B14. Retrieved 17 May 2023. Thierry Mugler...goes back...to the cavemen...To an audio background of thunder and shrieks, his dazed‐looking cavewomen wear minidresses with shredded hems.
^Hyde, Nina (24 March 1984). "Fashions on Faith". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 February 2022. ...Mugler brought heaven to earth and redesigned the firmament in his fashion spectacle...[M]odels dressed to represent the angel Gabriel, the 'Winged Victory,' Cupid and other heavenly beings stood quietly as the Madonna appeared on center stage, holding a baby, and the Lady of Fatima, suspended by a wire, was lowered onto the runway. The background music included the 'Hallelujah Chorus' and 'Ave Maria'.
^Schiro, Anne-Marie (26 March 1985). "Notes on Fashion". The New York Times: A22. Retrieved 8 February 2022. Thierry Mugler reminded his audience of just what many of them looked like in the 1960's in their minidresses, wildly colored prints, beads and link belts of plastic disks. Remember those?
^Morris, Bernadine (22 March 1985). "Japanese Designers Lower Shock Quotient". The New York Times: A18. Retrieved 4 April 2022. Thierry Mugler...is now into the psychedelic 1960's. Miniskirts and maxicoats, bell-bottom trousers, bubble-shaped dresses and Op Art jumpsuits, Afro wigs and short, straight Vidal Sassoon haircuts...
^Cunningham, Bill (1 March 1988). "Fashionating Rhythm". Details. New York, NY: Details Publishing Corp. VI (8): 120. ISSN0740-4921. The theme was African, a sort of stereotype of the Frenchman's fantasy of colonial Africa.
^Cunningham, Bill (1 September 1988). "The Colllllections". Details. New York, NY: Details Publishing Corp. VII (4): 191, 283. ISSN0740-4921. Mugler blended vampires with Paris high fashion....Thierry Mugler unleashed a sinister parade of vampires and bedeviled goddesses.
^Cunningham, Bill (1 March 1989). "Designers of the World, Unite!". Details. New York, NY: Details Publishing Corp. VII (9): 199, 303–307. ISSN0740-4921. Thierry Mugler went underwater in search of sea goddesses....From Thierry Mugler's...underwater-inspired collection, a lamé mermaid gown with fish-gill slashes on the hips and thighs that opened and closed as the model moved. Sea monster dresses....This year's...clothes have been constructed with fins down the shoulders,...suit pockets cut out like the toothy jaws of a shark,...fin-shaped earrings,...[and] suit jacket[s]...in shades of blue water.
^Cunningham, Bill (1 March 1988). "Fashionating Rhythm". Details. New York, NY: Details Publishing Corp. VI (8): 120. ISSN0740-4921. The fronts of [Mugler's] spring suits jut out with soft, sculptured fins suggesting 1950s Cadillacs.
^Cunningham, Bill (1 September 1989). "To the Future Through the Past". Details. New York, NY: Details Publishing Corp. VIII (3): 261. ISSN0740-4921. Thierry Mugler's silver leather jacket, with miniature Fifties automobile air vents as pocket flaps and taillights as lapel jewels.
^Cunningham, Bill (1 March 1989). "Designers of the World, Unite!". Details. New York, NY: Details Publishing Corp. VII (9): 307. ISSN0740-4921. A [Mugler] handbag styled after a Fifties automobile.
^Cadillac Motor Car Division, General Motors Corporation (1 August 1958). 1959 Cadillac. USA: General Motors Corporation. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
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