“The greatest elegance is the truth.” This phrase from Thierry Mugler could be a good summary of the spirit with which the french fashion designer He always faced his professional career. Manfred Thierry Mugler (according to his full name) died of natural causes this Sunday, January 23 at the age of 73, as confirmed by his own team on the creator’s Instagram account, which currently includes more than 640,000 followers and in which he defined himself as “director, inventor of showsperfume creator, fashion designer and photographer.”

Indeed, a single label would be insufficient to describe Mugler, transgressive and visionary like few in the world fashion business. Born in Strasbourg in 1948, he was a lonely child who very early began practicing dance, to the point that at the age of 14 he was already a professional dancer at the Opéra National du Rhin, in his hometown.

His father worked as a doctor, while His mother “was a model of elegance.” for whom Thierry Mugler professed an admiration mixed with an absolute rejection of that bourgeoisie of which, whether she liked it or not, she was a part,” according to author Danièle Bott in the book Thierry Mugler. Galaxie Glamoredited by Ramsay in 2009. That very young and tireless Mugler, who was capable of dancing up to 14 hours a day, always felt attracted to the world of theater and entertainment, something that later had a faithful reflection in the conception and aesthetics of their parades.

The creator landed in Paris in 1969, where he began to collaborate with other fashion designers and also tried his luck as a photographer. In 1973 he presented his first collection, Paris Cafeand in 1975 he decided to found the Maison Thierry Mugler, which immediately became renowned for its architectural style designs, always full of fantasy and highly seductive. “With me, provocation is natural,” she declared.

Proof that he liked to do things differently from the rest is that to celebrate the first ten years of his Maison he organized a fashion show with 350 models in which a large part of the 6,000 attendees paid for their tickets as if it were a concert. rock. Another of his statements collected in the book Thierry Mugler. Galaxie Glamor and that perfectly reflects its original philosophy is the following: “Fashion is not enough. I try to transmit sensations, a feeling. I always tell stories. Stories of men and women: spies, virgins, heroes, Parisians or secretaries, everyone’s life is an adventure. I imagine my characters and put them on stage. For me, clothes are a language.”

With that unique and personal language he dressed women with Extravagant designs inspired by insects, robots or comic characters. Among his muses were such iconic models as Jerry Hall, Linda Evangelista, Adriana Karembeu, Veruschka, Stella Tennant, Nadja Auermann, Shalom Harlow, Eva Herzigova, Iman, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer… More recently, in 2019, he created a outfit for the celebrity Kim Kardashian on the occasion of the famous gala at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, in an appearance that went viral.

“I imagine my characters and put them on stage. For me, clothes are a language”

Thierry Mugler

It so happens that, at the time of his death, Thierry Mugler’s work was starring in a retrospective at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, which according to the website of said institution will remain open until next April 24. In the book-catalogue of this exhibition, Pierre-Alexis Dumas, president of the museum, acknowledges that with this exhibition the aim was to settle an outstanding debt with the French designer, one of the few fashion geniuses who had not yet had a retrospective. of his career in the French capital.

“Host the exhibition Thierry Mugler. Couturissime “It is an honor for the Museum of Decorative Arts and a unique opportunity for the public: each silhouette, costume and accessory is an artistic work,” says Dumas, who also highlights in the catalog text the involvement that the creator himself gave to this project, “with their active presence and complicity.”

This year 2022, Thierry Mugler was not only in the news because of this retrospective, but also due to the fact that his most emblematic perfume, Angelcelebrates its 30th anniversary since the year of its creation, in 1992. In this aspect, the designer also broke all the molds, as he rebelled against the trend of floral fragrances that prevailed three decades ago.

In this sense, the Spanish Perfume Academy is another of the organizations that wanted to recognize the indelible mark of this visionary on the occasion of his death: “For our academics, Angel marked the beginning of perfumery gourmandvery innovative because it does not contain flower and because of the praline note, as well as because of the amount of patchouli, generating an addiction due to the fusion of taste and smell,” highlights the institution on its social networks, adding that this olfactory formula “is wild in its concept” and that “women’s perfumery could not be explained without it; It is the history of perfumery.”.

Created by noses Oliver Cresp and Yves de Chirin, Angel –which was initially marketed by the Clarins group and is now in the hands of L’Oréal– remains today one of the five best-selling perfumes in the worldaccording to the specialized fashion portal Business of Fashion (B.O.F.).

It is no coincidence that this mythical perfume – which has survived the passage of time in such a competitive industry – is packaged in a star-shaped bottle, as it was Thierry Mugler’s fetish symbol. It is another example of the designer’s taste for fantasy in all its aspects. “The star brings me happiness since my childhood”, he left said. Of course, his thing was not to cling to what was mundane and standardized, but rather he chose to take refuge in everything that allowed us to rise and dream, as can be seen from this other statement of his: “We will always need extraordinary clothes, a exceptional poetry.”

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