A French Visionary: The Unforgettable Thierry Mugler. 1948 – 2022

A look at the huge impact Thierry Mugler had on the fashion industry over several decades.

With the sad news of the passing of French fashion designer Thierry Mugler, we discuss some of his amazing work and why he was always ahead of the curve. Thierry Mulger was a designer with an instinctive eye for looking ahead – a visionary.

A highly creative french designer with a great talent for exaggerating a statement and making a high impact, open-minded, sexy, edgy fashion that always created a stir and got us all revisiting the zeitgeist. A fearless creator of voluptuous fashion dresses that were statements of power. His designs celebrated sexuality in extreme forms and transported the viewer to surreal fantasy worlds.

Starting in the 70’s he opened his first fashion label Cafe de Paris and his first boutique in Place des Victoires in Paris. The late David Bowie wore a Mugler pink dress in his 1979 ‘Boys keep swinging’ video and the celebrities started to line up for his attention for decades after that.

Mugler’s projection into the international hall of fame accelerated in the mid-’80s. In1984, he showed at the Zenith Arena in Paris, selling 6000 tickets. A stadium normally reserved for rock stars. He broke convention with moves like this and his theatrical catwalks, parading models in costumes mimicking birds, animals and even insects.

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Mugler’s designs became renowned for his cornice shoulders, a signature feature he accredited to his mother, accentuated womanly forms with constricted waists, exaggerated hips and deep low cut necklines. Not to mention completely sheer dresses and revealing cutouts in vinyl, plastic and leather that teased out more womanly flesh than most could imagine.

These were architectural outfits that sculptured and restricted the female form in metal and plastic. A trademark that sparked fame and controversy. The two usually go hand in hand in the fashion industry these days but were groundbreaking way back then.

His advertising also didn’t shy away from controversy either and he was very hands-on with the photography himself, travelling to all the locations, insisting on gruelling schedules.

His childhood inspirations were Hollywood film stars that he would watch in cinemas in Strasbourg, where he was born. Marlene Dietrich a key icon is one of them in her transgender feathers and leather outfits which influenced his designs throughout.

His life and thinking were certainly never ordinary, having lived on a houseboat selling ready to wear in Amsterdam and driven a van to Afghanistan as well as learning to dance in India – building on his earlier ballet career which he swapped for fashion.

His futuristic designs of the ’80s and early ’90s would not look out of place in today’s big-budget sci-fi film creations. Who can forget that famous George Micheal, Too Funky video? Fashion adorned supermodels were propelled onto the international stage giving them iconic status after wearing his creations.

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His perfume Angel and subsequent deal with French company Clarins in 1992 meant that he became financially secure and his dependence on fashion sales lessened, allowing his creative licence even more freedom. It was this deal that secured his retirement. He stepped back from the fashion industry in 2002 as Clarins bought the rights to his name in 1997.

Mugler’s talent was far too immense to be swept under the carpet. His fashion creations have continued to be exhibited as works of art all over the world.