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Why Did Mugler Become the Go-To Brand for Celebrities?
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Today’s younger generation of fashion fans may have first heard the name “Mugler” in association with Kylie Jenner’s python Halloween costume or Bella Hadid’s black corset look from the brand’s Spring/Summer 2020 show. After all, as fashion becomes increasingly celebrity-centered, Gen Zers are more likely to find outfit inspiration from their favorite well-photographed style stars than dive into the less available ‘80s and ‘90s archives. So, of course, this generation is acquainted with the “new” Mugler: the re-invented version of talented French visionary Thierry Mugler’s brand that shuttered in 2003.
Thierry Mugler became an internationally recognized designer in the ‘80s and ‘90s for his adventurous, architectural, and theatrical approach to haute couture. He embraced the female form with body-hugging designs and empowered the Mugler woman with exaggerated shoulders and hips, and his rise to prominence coincided with the beginnings of the supermodel era.
The ballet dancer-turned-designer defined the female silhouette in his golden era while simultaneously creating some of fashion and pop culture’s most memorable looks, like Pat Cleveland dressed as the Madonna in 1984 and Linda Evangelista in George Michael’s “Too Funky” music video.
Often grouped in conversation with the likes of John Galliano, Jean-Paul Gaultier, and Vivienne Westwood, the French designer will forever be known as a fashion hall-of-famer. He retired from fashion in 2002, and Clarins, Thierry Mugler’s parent company, closed the house in 2003 due to huge losses. So what is the Mugler we keep seeing on our Instagram feeds posting videos of a CGI robot version of Bella Hadid?
In September 2010, the Thierry Mugler brand was renamed MUGLER under new Creative Director Nicola Formichetti, who launched the brand’s revival. Since then, the “new” Mugler brand has gone through a line of three creative directors, the latest being American designer Casey Cadwallader. Cadwallader, who took the reigns of the brand in late 2017, aims to translate Thierry Mugler’s iconic silhouettes into more practical and wearable collections.
“The practical side is that I want Mugler to be more readily available to people, and to be in all my favorite stores,” Cadwallader told Models.com. “I’m focusing on the real clothes 80 percent of the time, let’s say, and then someday I would love for Mugler to be on the couture calendar again, but that’s not a one-year away thing.”
Cadwallader has created six collections for Mugler so far, and while he began by cautiously absorbing the brand’s ethos and attempting to identify his own icons, he’s now fully introducing a new definition of sex appeal to a generation who considers sweatpants a second skin. Perhaps the zeitgeist’s newfound obsession with vintage and archival fashion played a role in boosting Cadwallader’s confidence, or a couple seasons under his belt just helped him to get into the groove, but his recent work for the brand has been talked about by both fashion critics who know and love the “old” Mugler and younger generations who like the frame-hugging looks they see on their modern It-girls: Bella Hadid, Madison Beer, Miley Cyrus, and Dua Lipa.
Most recently, Cadwallader has been splitting his time between ready-to-wear and VIP requests (think music videos and red carpet looks). He designed custom looks for Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s sexed-up WAP music video, including matching bodysuits featuring the brand’s signature corset silhouette.
An increased focus on dressing celebrities means a belief in the power of a new type of marketing, and when Mugler’s newest goal is to become more accessible to the masses (hence: no more haute couture, but haute couture characteristics blended into ready-to-wear), it’s clear that Cadwallader is investing in the power of celebrities and social media to do so.
Cadwallader stepped into a house that has spent years building close relationships with A-list celebrities, and part of his job is to nurture and grow those connections, making sure that whoever loves the “old” Mugler gets on board with his modern vision. Rihanna, who has been wearing vintage Mugler since 2012, wore a full Mugler look from Cadwallader’s Fall 2020 collection to an April Fenty Beauty event filled with young beauty influencers and Gen-Z TikTok creators. Cardi B is also a fan of Mugler’s older days—she wore an archival Thierry Mugler couture look to the Grammys in 2019—but has worn many a custom Cadwallader piece herself, including a crystal gown for the 2020 Grammy Awards.
Cadwallader has also taken several new stars under his wing at Mugler, adding to the house’s family of celebrity ambassadors. He created custom looks for Bella Hadid, and both Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande wore Fall 2020 Mugler looks to this year’s VMAs. This was the first time the house had dressed Grande. One of Cadwallader’s main goals upon starting at Mugler was to bring the brand back to the stage and the screen through performances and music videos, so dressing models and performance artists is a surefire way to bring a theatrical air to the house without fully returning to the larger-than-life couture its founder is known for.
The house’s Spring 2021 Ready-to-Wear collection debuted with a promotional video starring a CGI-rendered version of Bella Hadid, which both the brand and model promoted heavily on their socials. The video was created by East German photographer and art director Florian Joahn, who gained notoriety as a photographer in 2018 for rejecting the idea of “another pretty girl in a dress.” He’s known for focusing on the surreal—what we may not have historically seen in traditional fashion photography—and explores themes of the feminine side of black masculinity and queer cultures across the world. Cadwallader has extended his works even further into the virtual sphere creating CGI-rendered looks for the mesmerizing Bratz-esq graphics for Hyperpop royalty Shygirl’s music video “Freak.”
Instagram and Tik Tok celebrities like Madison Beer and Addison Rae have also been spotted wearing Cadwallader’s Mugler on the red carpet recently, which some high fashion fans saw as a clear sign of the brand’s democratization from Thierry Mugler’s couture days. With a combined total of 52 million Instagram followers and 80 million Tik Tok followers, though, these It-girls make it pretty difficult for Mugler to reach any larger pocket of Gen-Z fashion fans.
So, is it clicking? With Cadwallader only just starting to become more adventurous with Mugler’s ready-to-wear, it’s a bit early to predict if he’ll make sure the brand has the same imprint on the 2020s as it did on the ’80s and ’90s. With camp coming back in full force, though, it’s clear that the opportunity is there. He might just have to execute those Thierry Mugler runway theatrics in in music videos or Instagram shots, though, just as the digital fashion world demands.
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createdAt:Mon, 09 Nov 2020 19:03:19 +0000
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section:Fashion