Paris men’s week opened today with a relaunch of the Thierry Mugler brand. Immediately obvious from the street scene at the entrance — a horde of excited teenagers clambering to sneak in — was the fact that Paris, unlike Milan, is awash in youth culture. That energy bled onto the runway, where Nicola Formichetti, the creative director behind the relaunch, and Romain Kremer, the new designer of the men’s collection, presented their first show. Kremer is a young Parisian known for his futuristic, bright and shiny pieces, and Formichetti is a stylist renowned for his ground-breaking work with young magazines like Dazed and Confused, not to mention his collaborations with Lady Gaga. She created the music for the evening, a new song that can be heard by watching a video of the show, available below. Gaga fans hungering for her latest will ensure that this collection is immediately injected into the pop culture consciousness, regardless of the clothes.
(... see video on mugler website)
But the clothes may just accomplish that feat on their own. The core of what was presented turns out to be pretty straightforward. Suits and sweaters are cut to a cool but not too crazy silhouette — at least enough so that everyone can and will wear it. Of course, various bits were gussied up — zippers appeared in nontraditional places, a tux had a bit of extra sheen, a topcoat was hooded. And obvious styling tricks were employed — a number of models came out wearing a latex second skin, while others wore floaty, jellyfish-like veils. But none of it felt gimmicky. Instead, it felt like visual manifestations of the inspiration and spirit behind the new Thierry Mugler.
The new Thierry Mugler, by the way, will henceforth be known as Mugler. Besides marking a changing of the guard, this new nomenclature is a nod to the fashion-speak penchant for brand-name shortening. As insiders would have done anyway, so will the masses. After a compliment, they’ll all simply say, “It’s Mugler.”
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