Mugler. Fall 2024 RTW - Paris Fashion Week.

 

The lingerie out wear trend of 2019 through to 2021, has fallen out of favour on the runways.  Mixed with the eros and carnal, which possibly hinted that a redux of the hedonistic 1970s and early to mid 1980s, could be on the horizon as an emergence of a similar counter culture.  Which has yet to materialize.  Sans, the simarcum of moving back and forth throughout the Four decade timeline, trying to draw out inspiration.  It must be said that fashion doesn't predict futures, but sometimes it offers a clue.

Yet, it could be argued that the late Thierry Mugler who set the amorous stage for his signature label in the 1970s, steered the course for these hedonic arrays, until he retired from the fashion industry in 2002.  That it began, and ended with his legacy.  So, it would have been a hard task to find a designer that could match Thierry's Avant-garde sophistication of the sexual, yet Casey Cadwallader has been to fit the Mugler risqué, without being overly confined to emulating Thierry's template.  But, when all said and done, it would have been a hard task without the Mugler name, for Cadwallader to set his own inspired presidence.  Considering, since Thierry Mugler's passing in 2022, the high-end makeup and cosmetic conglomerate Clarins who owns the Thierry Mugler brand name. Would have indeed mounted the pressure, that Cadwallader keep to Mugler's established timeline.

Hence, the movie inspired clips and their lookbooks, Thierry was a fan of movie and costume design, as Cadwallader, since the pandemic, has mostly offered Mugler to be more of an exclusive impression, rather than any broader market appeal.  Which in turn has paid off, ensuing that the exclusivity and celebrity driven looks, have kept Cadwallader's balanced influence over Mugler in tact.

Cadwallader's Fall 2024 ensemble for Mugler has of course remained with the epicurean, and his sex inspired hedonism.  With the trend that was prolific for the 2024 fashion weeks to date, that being the sheer and naked looks. Which poses and interesting statement in its reflection of 2024 fashion shows, where the slightly conservative leaning styles on the runway, have been mixing it up with the lingerie looks of the last Five years.  And this can be seen with Cadwallader's latest collection of blazers, suits, leather and bondage.  Stretching out the taboo, that is the BDSM (seen with Avant-garde designer Rick Owens Fall 2024 showing), and when societies become restrictive and submissive to sexuality.  It splinters itself into, as mentioned, sadomasochism.

This is by far, Cadwallader's darker and Avant-garde collection to date, delivering itself as a sharper, defined and more intense presentation.  Which, as seen with other fashion shows for the first three months of 2024, is indicative of the times that we are all living through.

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(A.Glass 2024)