Some designers are born to exist for the stage.
Magnificent and gorgeous such as John Galliano, outlandish such as Alexander McQueen, quirky such as Jean Paul Gaultier, on the catwalk of these brands, there will never be boring works, only fanciful ideas. In today's fashion world, when the gods are at dusk, we always start to miss the catwalk that is not only large silhouette and straight line, but also not boring.
But you'd say that the real stage guru of fashion, French designer Manfred Thierry Mugler, will definitely be on the list. Every time I look back at his runway, I can feel that he really presents his philosophy with great effort - a well-behaved, half-hour-long fashion show, where models are no longer "hangers" for showing clothing, but actors who perform with steps, and when a show is watched, it is not just the costume that is remembered.
On January 23, 2022, Mueller, who had been "retiring" from the fashion industry for a long time, passed away. Another superstar in the Fashion Galaxy fell, and everyone expressed their condolences. What exactly did he do that was so haunting?
"I want my models to be taller, bigger, stronger than mortals, and what I need is supermen."
（I want my models to be bigger, stronger, and taller than common mortals, I need superwomen and supermen.）
Born in Strasbourg, France in 1948, Müller appears to have been born for the stage, learning classical dance at the age of 9 and joining the Ballet de l'Opéra National du Rhin at the age of 14 as a dancer. At the same time, Müller studied interior design at the Strasbourg School of Decorative Arts. At the age of 19, he switched to fashion design, first working as an assistant in Paris, then becoming a freelance designer, tailoring for famous ladies and ladies all over Europe.
In the 1980s and 1990s, when Mueller's popularity was alternating between the second and third-wave feminist movements, hippies shouting "love and peace" put down flowers and tassels, put on shoulder-padded suits during the day, changed into shiny short skirts at night, used fashion as weapons, made the body a battlefield, and put body politics ( body p
Müller also saw this, so his fashion design was more artistic than functional. Because of years of experience in theatre performances and interior design, Müller's designs incorporate the stage elements of the play, with exaggerated broad-shoulder structures, leather and latex that are so tight that they cannot breathe, straps and corners entangled in the model's body, and architectural aesthetics and futuristic styles together outline an inverted triangle of female silhouettes. With his towering shoulders as the epitome of the aura and his slender waist as a sexy outpouring, Muller combines haute couture craftsmanship exclusive to noble ladies and ladies with an aesthetic aesthetic of erotic content with fetish complexes to create works with a strong personal style.
Therefore, I have always thought that women who wear Thierry Mugler brand clothes are different from women who wear Chanel, Dior, Armani and Versace. If chanel is a small family jasper, dior is a big girl, armani is a strongman in the workplace, and Versace is a queen of the night show, then the women who wear Thierry Mugler seem to be women who come out of the Novel "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" by the American science fiction writer Robert Heinlein, they are rare, crazy, and cold.
"I've been trying to sublimate my body, and people have dreams to do."
（I have always tried to sublimate the body and to make people dream.）
Mueller's clothes were not everyone's cup of tea. Without the need to try on the upper body, just by looking at the models' interpretations, you can imagine that such clothes are not comfortable to wear on the body. It just so happens that ordinary silk and cotton and linen are not his favorites, Mueller is obsessed with leather and rubber, and the use of materials makes his design stiff, and every time he looks at the model, it is like putting on a layer of airtight armor.
It turns out that at the 2019 MET Gala, Kim Kardashian once wore a Thierry Mugler's silicone "water drop skirt" on the scene, tight and curvy. But if you've ever spied behind the scenes, you'll know how much Kardashian suffered in order to tuck herself into this dress, and then invited three big men to help get dressed, before squeezing herself in, smiling bitterly at the camera and saying, "If you see me wandering around the venue and not sitting down to eat, you know why now, right?" It's just a pity that I didn't come to the scene in person, otherwise I might have heard the screams of surprise when she swung herself on the red carpet.
Looking back at Mueller's design history, futuristic styles and mimetic techniques abound. The metallic luster of the machinery and the sharp edges and corners of the creatures shine together, and the elements of robots and biological cyberbo shine from time to time, one is the microscopic insect universe, the other is the majestic underwater world, and between the universes, he can get the inspiration material.
Both have a pair of proud long legs, dressed in gold armor incarnated as female warrior Nadja Auermann;
There are also those who challenge traditional gender perspectives, Elaine Irwin in a motorcycle corset;
There are also models who walk like marching ants on the platform;
And the front looks serious, but the back is gorgeous like a swallowtail butterfly and a bird of paradise evening dress;
When it comes to creating surprises, you can always trust Mueller.
Surprises don't just exist in costume design, what really makes Muller play flowers is the "show" word of the fashion show. In 1984, while other brands were still open only to customers and buyers, Müller hosted a theatrical fashion show open to the public at Le Zenith in France, the first commercial fashion show in history to be open to the public, with 6,000 tickets sold out.
When Pat Cleveland incarnated as a Virgin Mary and fell from the sky, the beauty was breathtaking, and 350 exquisite costumes also made the show worth the ticket price.
The spring/summer 1997 show is also worth mentioning, although there is no specially arranged plot, but the 46-minute length makes the peers look insincere. The whimsical creativity and the dramatic models not only made the guests stunned and applauded, but also made today's show look dull and boring.
"I quit the fashion industry because I've had enough of kneeling on the ground all day and making people look charming."
（The reason I quit fashion was that I had had enough of spending my time always being on my knees, making other people look amazing and fabulous.）
In 2002, unable to stand the excessive commercialization of the fashion circle, Mueller chose to quit and focus on art and stage costume design.
But the reason why the master is a master is actually because Muller is not only outstanding in clothing design, but also a genius in photography.
Out of a penchant for architecture, Müller's advertising campaigns often combine clothing, models, and architecture, sometimes sacrificing the details of clothing to show the grandeur of architecture. Especially in his photographs set in the former Soviet Union, soviet futuristic architecture and grand monumental architecture often appear in the lens, forming a subtle contrast with clothing. The fruits of capitalism are not as abrupt as they might be imagined in the soil of socialism.
But you're going to say that Mueller's earliest aesthetic influence on us probably won't be through the costumes that appear on beyoncé's stage;
Nor is it Lady Gaga's striped dress in the Telephone MV;
Instead, it is through the famous work "Sailor Moon" by Naoko Takeuchi, a famous "Shiratomi" in the Japanese manga industry!
Mueller's costumes are worn by many characters, although most of them are the royal suits of villains, but don't forget that the most charming is always the villain.
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Although 2022 has just begun, there are already two heavyweights in the fashion industry away from us, first the famous editor André Leon Talley (André Leon Talley) died suddenly, and then there is Thierry Muller hurriedly saying goodbye, in such an era of star-falling, we only hope that they can go a little slower and leave more works for us to enjoy.