Thierry Mugler Mens Paris F/W 11.12

[markese91]

Nicola Formichetti spends a lot of time on airplanes. With contributions to American, European, and Japanese fashion magazines, not to mention his post as Lady Gaga’s fashion director, his frequent flyer miles would make even the most seasoned flight attendant blush. And now as a designer of a storied French fashion house, he’s only getting busier. We managed to track Formichetti down way up in Vancouver, where he was photographing Rico, a man who is covered in eerily postmortem tattoos, including his face darkened like a skull, that Formichetti discovered on Facebook and decided to shoot for the first-ever images from his Mugler men’s collection. Facebook, tattoos, technology, collaboration: as Formichetti will tell you, these are the themes that will appear in the stylist-turned-designer’s collections.
“I feel more like a curator than a designer,” Formichetti explains, acknowledging that he is the sort of designer who looks to the streets for inspiration and asks his friends, like Rico here, for input. “It’s all about different characters and collaborations.” He started with the concept of extreme minimalism and moved toward the Digital Age, fueled the entire time by the new album of his loyal friend and most famous collaborator, Lady Gaga. “I want to say something that has the past and the future, but what is really important to me is the present.”

Formichetti has done his homework, learning as much as he can about Mugler himself (both designers have no formal training or ever studied fashion) and going through the entire Mugler archives in Paris, piece by piece. He says he was shocked when negotiations regarding his takeover of the creative direction of the house began, but ultimately it seemed logical. “I have always been a fan of what he did, how he always pushed to do something fresh and was ahead of his time.” Not that he wasn’t intimated: “At first I thought I couldn’t do anything better than he did, so I didn’t want to do it. And then I said, “**** it, I’m going to do my thing.”

Formichetti’s one significant change is that the brand and the collections will lose the original’s first name, being identified only as Mugler by Nicola Formichetti. The first collection, he says, revolves around darkness, Berlin, rebirth and death, among other influences—“You know, all those happy things Gaga and I like so much.”

vman

 

[D'Felipe]

LOVES IT! can't wait for more!

 

[markese91]

They've been releasing images, there are 3 other ones but these were said to be pieces from the actual show so that's why I posted.

 

[Street_a_Licious]

god, i hope it won't be filled with gimmicks.

 

[Monsieur M]

I must say this is completely sick but I totally love it!!! Bravo!

 

[markese91]

i'm feeling a very specific way about how it's going to happen and how Formichetti is going to be as a designer and I'm conflicted about it... oh and the show is tomorrow...

 

[Leeroi]

Formichetti is a great stylist, probably one of the best stylist working today. But how well will that translate into actually designing an entire collection? Who knows. He's been rather consistent with what he's doing to Lady Gaga so it may actually be a very coherent menswear collection; whether the actual clothes will be good or bad will be up to people.

I think every fashion house usually has that one pop artist they become famous for collaborating with, and I think the Mugler & Gaga combination would be fantastic. Whether you like Gaga or not, it's undeniable that there is really not anyone working at the moment who can pull off wearing overtly eccentric Mugler designs except her. Although the article does say Formichetti is playing with minimalism, something Mugler is not exactly known for.

Gaga debuting her single at the Mugler show, correct? I was so taken aback, in a very pleasing way, when I heard Bad Romance in the Alexander McQueen show and it was so effective. I hope this will be as effective.

Can't wait for the show and ofcourse Gaga's new single. Hopefully the said remix version won't be too different from the original version.

 

[Miss Galliano]

this is going to be sick !

 

[FND74]

I keep reading this as Muggles by Nicola Formichetti.

 

[markese91]

1.) I don't think many major fashion brands are married to a pop artist. I can't think of one for Prada, Hermes, nor Gucci... YSL even... I actually can't think of any major designer's success besides McQueen, that has been based on a pop artist(and McQueen's wasn't based only enhanced)
2.) When you say consistent with what he's doing with gaga... I just can't... I really can't...

 

[Deleted member 7575]

hmmm...

this does not bode well

 

[MissMagAddict]

PARIS — “He was a kind of pop culture punk in a fashion world — and that’s me,” Nicola Formichetti, the new creative director at the fashion house of Thierry Mugler, said with a yelp of laughter.

Indeed, Formichetti, best known as the stylist who put Lady Gaga in a dress made of raw meat and other equally outrageous ensembles, said he has already conscripted the pop sensation as a conspirator as he sets out to reinvent the Paris-based firm’s collections, starting with his men’s wear debut tonight. Gaga will be the show’s musical director, although she isn’t expected to be in the front row.

The music she created, based on a never-heard track from her forthcoming album “Born This Way,” is “very, very hard, but pop at the same time...It’s really amazing,” enthused Formichetti, who held his cell phone over a speaker to preview a snippet of the spoken-word intro. An Internet-savvy sort, he plans to mount visuals and sound from his show quickly on Mugler’s Web site because “I want to make sure her fans can have a front-row seat.”

Capturing Gaga’s audience of followers is sure to catapult the profile of Mugler, which has made barely a flicker on the fashion radar in recent years despite the Clarins Group brand’s strong portfolio of fragrances, including Angel, Alien and Womanity.

Formichetti said he’s already created custom Mugler costumes for the pop sensation’s album art, videos and performances ahead of her album release on May 23, and Gaga will likely be more involved in the women’s ready-to-wear line, making its debut on the runway March 1 during Paris Fashion Week.

“I want people to think, ‘OK, there’s something new happening.’ I want people to get excited again, not only fashion people,” he said in an interview as he readied 20 to 30 looks for the men’s runway today, and a short film as a backdrop.

The globe-trotting, half-Japanese, half-Italian dynamo — who will continue his role as fashion director of Vogue Hommes Japan but rein in other editorial and consulting work — noted Gaga is not under contract with Mugler, describing their ongoing collaboration in organic, causal terms: “It’s me and her just having fun and getting very inspired from the idea of Mugler,” he said. “She’s very much involved, more in the early stages.”

For example, that new track. “When I heard it, I said, ‘That’s Mugler.’ She’s remixing it especially for the show.”

Formichetti, 33, said the Strasbourg-born designer who skyrocketed to fame in the Eighties with his sculptural and theatrical creations first came to his attention when he moved to London at age 20 and saw the George Michael video for “Too Funky,” which showcased Mugler’s runway magic, from a motorcycle-esque bustier replete with handlebars and rearview mirrors to a robotlike bodysuit and helmet.

“I didn’t look at it as fashion. It was pop culture,” Formichetti recalled. “Out of all the incredible designers that I loved, he was the one.”

Indeed, Formichetti confessed he was apprehensive about taking over the brand when first approached by Joël Palix, president of Clarins Fragrance Group and director general of the Mugler company. “I thought, How can you do something better than Thierry Mugler? He was a fashion god.

“The clothes were out of this world. It always had a story behind it; it wasn’t only a new look or a new silhouette. He just created his own universe.”

Yet Formichetti has no plans to hit the rewind button.

“I’m not here to re-create what he did. It was perfect for the time. I’m going to do something for today and the future,” he said.

According to him, at the core of Mugler’s extreme, superhero silhouettes lies the essence of the brand: giving power to people. “I want to give power to the people in a more human way,” Formichetti mused. “They need to feel confident inside. He was about superhumans. For me, it’s a little more emotional, romantic. I want to give dreams and fantasy and all those things — and I want people to wear those clothes.”

“A modern-day punk,” “bold” and “a little bit hard” are some of the terms Formichetti threw out to describe his vision for Mugler.

To signal the new direction, Clarins is dropping the Thierry to just Mugler for the fashion label. (The fragrances will continue under the name Thierry Mugler, with the founding designer as their artistic director.)

A trawl through the Mugler fashion archive was a starting point for Formichetti, who oversees two design directors: Sébastien Peigné, a 10-year veteran of Balenciaga, for women’s, and Romain Kremer, who has shown experimental looks under his fledgling Paris label since 2005, for men’s. Formichetti followed his stylist instincts and gravitated toward pieces made of rubber, fake fur, velvet and silver — and in bright colors like orange.

He said he and Kremer also absorbed the “Hollywood glamor” of Mugler and “reworked his signature suit.” During a preview, the duo showed off a lapel-less satin coat over a funnel-neck top, wide-leg pants and creeper shoes, injecting a streetwise edge to sharp, graphic tailoring and incorporating such Mugler details as snap closures.

Since last week, Formichetti has leaked a series of teaser images about the men’s debut, featuring Montreal model Rick Genest, who has tattooed his entire body so he resembles a skeleton. Photos by Mariano Vivanco — whom Formichetti describes as “very Renaissance statue feeling” — depict him wearing a spiked helmet and encased in black latex, which he peels off in stages. “He is so incredible,” Formichetti said about Genest, better known online as Zombie Boy. “He’s so not Mugler, it’s Mugler in a way….He really inspired me.”

Like the house founder, who recently earned design kudos for a Cirque du Soleil project and a Beyoncé world tour, Formichetti had no formal fashion training. He said he knows how to sketch but approaches fashion like a stylist, manipulating clothes and building an image in concert with Peigné and Kremer. He characterized this “team work” as a new way of working with the fashion business.

Likewise, given his penchant for blogging and tweeting, he’s tossed out the rule book in terms of magazine exclusives, seasonal campaigns and geographic rollouts. “I want to be global, but I want to be digital, instant, direct. I don’t want it to be a ‘normal’ fashion brand. We are always punk and outsider,” he said. “The great thing about the online world is it’s instant: You get feedback; the feelings of consumers and fans.”

Palix called Formichetti a “maverick in terms of his understanding and vision for fashion” who is already driving a “huge” spike in online conversation about the Mugler brand.

The Mugler men’s launch includes a new Italian manufacturing and distribution partner, Inghirami, and ambitious targets for the first collection, which will span tailored clothing, sportswear and leather goods. Palix said he’s gunning for 80 to 100 wholesale doors, concentrating efforts initially on Europe and North America.

“It’s a young team, and that’s what fashion needs today — waking up a little bit the fashion world,” Palix said.

source | wwd.com

 

[birdofparadise]

A lot of hype. And orange? Really? Orange you glad I didn't say apple?

 

[BerlinRocks]

^I do think too there's gonna be a LOT of hype around this duo ...
Kremer + Formichetti for Mugler is gonna be a PRESS brand, not a brand ... if you see what I mean ...

 

[Street_a_Licious]

all those tattoo faced guys already tell me that he'll go with gimmicky styling. which i HATE.

 

[markese91]

i'm confused... didn't someone else do the ghoulish look like for fall 2010... are you guys bashing just because you expected it for Nicola or because of the merits, or lack of merit? I find myself annoyed when people praise one person doing something and bash someone else all because of who it is.

 

[thejarc]

I'm excited. Mugler + Kremer + Formichetti + lots of cool designers (I read here and there about recently graduated designers that made into the team) means a whole lot of excitement. But the only exciting thing in the preview images is the make-up. But I won't judge a collections by four images.

 

[Salvatore]

Reading through that article, there was too much Lady Gaga name dropping for my comfort and it appears he is going to ride it. I cannot say that I am particularly excited about that.

But we will see.

 

[JuiceMajor]

Those tattoo is really turning me on! Did he work for both Vivienne Westwood and Givenchy under Ricardo? Anyway looking forward to it

p/s perhaps we sud change the title to reflect!

 

[markese91]

Yeah the Thierry part should be taken off... the name has officially been changed.