Thierry Mugler
Opéra Garnier (Paris), 1986
Dauphine de Jerphanion in “Aerie Window”
(“Veuve de l’air”) by Mugler
Digital Print

Written by Olivia Young
Copyedited by Chloë Rain

Photo Edited by Alanna Reid

A retrospective exhibition, Couturissme pays homage to the daring history of French designer Thierry Mugler. Renowned for his infamous mark on the fashion industry, this exhibition provides a multimedia walkthrough of Mugler’s eccentric creations. Alongside over 100 mannequins draped in bold and glamorous haute couture is a plethora of video, photographs, and sound to fully immerse the viewer in Mugler’s world. Mugler's own photography is featured, as is the work of many other notable artists, such as Helmut Newton and David Lachapelle.

Helmut Newton
Photo shoot for the catalogue of the collection “Lingerie Revisited”, Monaco, 1998
Digital Print
The Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin

The experience is divided into sections, beginning with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, honoring Mugler’s contribution of costume design to the 1985 rendition of the Shakespeare play. A 3D scene of Lady Macbeth in her dignified, golden gown is projected against the wall, welcoming viewers into the exhibit with a dramatic flair. The following sections range from Futuristic & Fembot Couture to Metamorphosis, and so on. The former explores Mugler’s fascination with science fiction, and how this led to his groundbreaking robotic designs. The latter combines elements of beauty and seduction, utilizing the natural world to create insect-like textures and patterns. There is even The Mugler Lab, which touches on the designer’s fragrance line.

Each room introduces a new series of breathtaking designs, accompanied by lighting, music, and video to enhance the theme that has been curated. The images within each section are striking, the photographic expertise of artists used to amplify the innovative fashion of a designer. Featured in these images, is a section dedicated to the designer himself, titled Beyond Fashion: Mugler Behind the Lens. The exhibit text describes how Mugler became interested in photography, beginning in 1976. After consistently interfering in an advertising campaign he had hired Helmut Newton for, Mugler began capturing his own work.

From Left to Right
Musée D’Orsay, Paris, 1986
Martha in “Archangel Gabriel” by Mugler
Digital Print
“Hiver des anges - 10 ans”
Capilla del Convento de las Capuchinas
(Luis Barragán, architect) Tlalpan,
Mexico City, 1985
Anna Bayle in “Golden Aura”) by Mugler
Digital Print

Drawn to architecture and nature, Mugler’s images often place his subject in monumental locations, with a vast disproportion between subject and scene. This is especially evident in the photographs surrounding a silk, caped gown, decorated with crystals and positioned to reference the Virgin Mary. One, titled Capillo del Connvento de las Capuchinas, captures a woman posed atop a gray wall. She is minuscule in comparison. The wall has a cross-like cut out, exposing an indigo sky that contrasts the woman’s white dress above. Her arms are outstretched, the pose as elegant as the garment she wears. This disparity of woman and environment, especially through the use of proportion, is one often used by Mugler to create awe-inspiring, signature images. Though this is just one photograph that portrays the vastness of Mugler’s creative direction, it is this same boldness and ingenuity that allowed him to build the empire explored in Couturissme.