Mugler. Spring 2025 - Paris Fashion Week

 

Casey Cadwallader's ode to the late Thierry Mugler's dominatrix stylizations carries on, after being appointed to be Mugler's new creative director in 2018, and now over seven years into his tenure has reinvigorated the once hyper-epicurean brand of the 1970s and 1980s.  Cadwallader, in homage, has very much kept the sexulaized avant-garde to which the recently deceased Thierry Mugler, who actually retired in 2002, maintained his creative prose until his passing in 2022, designing mostly fragrances and one off outfits for the the slew of 21st Century stars.  And yet the Mugler brand is no more than a concept, rather than any legacy to the once famed French designer.

So, this poses the question.  Is Cadwallader slowly releasing the Mugler namesake and redefining the late designer's imprint, evolving into something unique and personal to the young American designer?   

A clue in this process of reshaping a signature label, particularly after the death of the Thierry Mugler, could be from the designer himself when he was alive.  After Mugler changed his name to Manfred, persona and physical body and became reclusive after retirement in 2002.   This could be indicative of what branding means in a materistically driven world.  A good example, is what Balenciaga stands for in today's luxury market, far removed from what Cristóbal Balenciaga would have imagined when he passed away in 1972.

And for Cadwallader's Spring 2025 collection, the American designer, darent I say, has incorporated the Canadian movie maker Cronenberg-esque body horror aspect to the collection, although horror maybe a slightly stronger term in describing the 29 looks, as the styles on display are not a shocking transformation of form per se.  But rather, Cadwallader's interest in dissecting flowers, and studying their inner workings which was the centrepoint for this collection, and then fusing the dissection onto the human body.    Which, without a scientific perspective, could be seen as a morbidly artistic fetish.  The flower, in its purpose is sacred, with its mystifying details.  

So, does the collection aesthetically work?   It seems less structured than previous showings from Cadwallader, with Mugler's avant-grade evident throughout, hence the multitudes of intricate layering on some of the outfits, and Cadwallader's ubiquitously templated eros, mixed with science fiction overtures.  With elements of militancy attached, which holds true to Cadwallader's anthropocentric cue, of a dominating and controlling theme over nature.  Offering less of the dominatrix, and more aggressively tuned.  With several male models, styled like they are part of a paramilitary unit.  Reminding me of Daniel Lee's militarist revamp of Bottega Veneta, before, (rumored) he fell from grace.

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(A.Glass 2024)