Alan Strutt (British, born 1967). Yasmin Le Bon, Palladium, London, 1997. Evening Standard, October 1997. Haute couture Fall/Winter 1997–98 assortment (“La Chimère”). © Alan Strutt
On view from November 18, 2022, to May 7, 2023
From high fashion designs to stage costumes, pictures, movies, and unpublished archives, Thierry Mugler: Couturissime is the first retrospective to discover the fascinating, edgy universe of French designer and creator of iconic perfumes Thierry Mugler. Organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Thierry Mugler: Couturissime has been tailored for the Brooklyn Museum by Thierry-Maxime Loriot, curator of the exhibition, and Matthew Yokobosky, Senior Curator of Fashion and Material Culture, Brooklyn Museum. Showcasing almost 130 outfits, most on view for the first time, the exhibition may even embody equipment, movies, pictures, sketches, and a particular gallery devoted to fragrances. Already seen by a couple of million guests in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and France since its launch in 2019, the exhibition concludes its tour in Brooklyn.
A trend visionary, Mugler established himself as certainly one of the most daring and progressive designers of the late twentieth century. In the Seventies, Mugler outlined tendencies by creating his acclaimed “glamazon” (a conflation of “glamour” and “Amazon”), a classy, trendy lady whose model developed from the flower energy, hippie fashions of the Sixties. Throughout Mugler’s profession, his daring silhouettes and use of avant garde fabrication methods and supplies together with glass, Plexiglas, PVC, fake fur, vinyl, latex, and chrome made their mark on trend historical past. In the Eighties and ’90s, he galvanized the renaissance of high fashion by his provocative collections and theatrical trend exhibits, which concerned grandiose areas and the period’s most acclaimed fashions. To today, his work continues to affect new generations of couturiers.
Mugler’s sensational displays and smooth aesthetic have been immortalized by his path and designs for George Michael’s music video “Too Funky” (launched in 1992) and his costume designs for Cirque du Soleil (Zumanity, 2003) and Beyoncé’s acclaimed world tour I Am . . . (2009). Celebrities proceed to be drawn to Mugler’s designs: his basic robes have not too long ago been worn by Beyoncé, Cardi B, and Kim Kardashian. Thierry Mugler: Couturissime is a chance to find and rediscover the fantastical work of an artist, couturier, director, photographer, and perfumer who revolutionized the world of trend.
The exhibition is organized thematically, highlighting Mugler’s pursuits in fantasy, glamour, science fiction, eroticism, and the pure world. Displayed in the Brooklyn Museum’s Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing and Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery, the exhibition opens with a life-measurement 3-D hologram, made by artist Michel Lemieux for Lemieux Pilon 4D Art. The projection brings to life Mugler’s designs for a theatrical manufacturing of La Tragédie de Macbeth, introduced by the Comédie-Française at the 1985 Festival d’Avignon. The Brooklyn Museum presentation additionally features a gallery devoted to perfume, with a brand new part celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of Mugler’s trailblazing scent Angel. Mugler distinguished himself in the world of recent perfumes with this 1992 launch. The perfume’s inclusion of ethyl maltol, a compound used in the meals trade to lend a sugary style to sweets, began an olfactory revolution that launched a brand new fragrance class: gourmand. Angel is displayed alongside Mugler’s later perfume creations Alien, A*males, Aura, and Womanity.
Couturissime additionally explores the significance of trend images, with works by quite a few artists and Mugler collaborators together with Lillian Bassman, Guy Bourdin, David LaChapelle, Karl Lagerfeld, Sarah Moon, Pierre et Gilles, Herb Ritts, and Ellen von Unwerth. Mugler himself turned a distinguished trend photographer in the Seventies, taking pictures his personal promoting campaigns. He performed on the glamour and fantastic thing about his muses, from Jerry Hall to Iman, in excessive areas resembling Greenland, the Sahara, the roof of the Paris Opéra, and atop the famed eagles on the sixty-first ground of New York City’s Chrysler Building. The exhibition additionally highlights the lifelong collaboration between Thierry Mugler and photographer Helmut Newton. Twenty-three of Newton’s pictures are on view, together with pictures that characteristic Mugler’s vital assortment “Lingerie Revisited,” Fall/Winter 1998–99, and the fashions Carla Bruni and Kristen McMenamy.
Mugler’s curiosity in futurism and his distinctive “fembot couture” are showcased in galleries designed by Berlin artist and set designer Philipp Fürhofer. Mugler took inspiration from a wide range of sources, resembling science fiction and comedian-guide superheroines, medieval armor and uniforms, and industrial design and futuristic autos. He playfully devised removable or “convertible” sheath robes, “fender” bustiers, “radiator” belts, and a “tail fin” bag. He collaborated with Jean-Pierre Delcros, an plane bodywork specialist, and Jean-Jacques Urcun, an artist, to create robotic people seemingly poured into chrome bustiers and Plexiglas catsuits. Mugler’s all-time masterpiece, Maschinenmensch, introduced in 1995 at his twentieth-anniversary present, is a totally articulated robotic armor go well with that required six months of intensive work to manufacture. The go well with pays tribute to the character of Futura from the dystopian novel Metropolis (1925), famously visualized in the eponymous 1927 movie by Fritz Lang.
In 1991, Mugler’s abilities prolonged into music and movie when he directed the music video for George Michael’s tune “Too Funky,” which has gone on to turn into an MTV and YouTube basic. As explored in a devoted gallery, the video’s costumes have been worn by high fashions of the day, together with Tyra Banks, Linda Evangelista, Connie Girl, Eva Herzigová, Estelle Lefébure, and Emma Sjöberg, in addition to performer Joey Arias and actor Julie Newmar, the authentic Catwoman.
In the “Metamorphosis” part of the exhibition, an immersive set up by Rodeo FX (which has developed particular results for such productions as Dune, Game of Thrones, and Stranger Things) highlights flamboyant silhouettes from Mugler’s “Les Insectes” and “La Chimère” collections of 1997–98, that includes steep shoulders, plunging décolletés, and hourglass waistlines. The centerpiece design is a black velvet sheath and practice, adorned with butterfly wings made from feathers created by plumassier Maison Lemarié. Another costume options iridescent scales and is embroidered with crystals, costume diamonds, feathers, and horsehair, a fruits of the extravagance of Mugler’s couture creativeness. “Metamorphosis” additionally consists of nymphs donning scalloped glass-and-shell bustiers, posed alongside organza jellyfish that evoke the imagery of Jules Verne’s nineteenth-century science-fiction novel Twenty Thousand Leagues below the Seas however with a contemporary twist.
“The fixed improvements, innovations, and avant-garde architectural silhouettes in the work of Mugler have marked an period,” says Thierry-Maxime Loriot, curator of the exhibition. “His singular model discovered a spot in the historical past of trend that also has a robust affect on at present’s era of couturiers, not solely due to its designs, but additionally due to the sturdy message of inclusivity, variety, and empowerment in his physique of labor. To current the exhibition I created with him, in the metropolis he lived in and liked a lot, is the most lovely tribute to have a good time the man and the artist’s legacy.”
“Building on the Brooklyn Museum’s historical past of celebrating the trailblazing French couturiers Jean Paul Gaultier in 2013, Pierre Cardin in 2019, and Christian Dior in 2021, we’re thrilled for our audiences to expertise Thierry Mugler: Couturissime,” says Matthew Yokobosky, Senior Curator of Fashion and Material Culture, Brooklyn Museum. “Originally a ballet dancer, Thierry Mugler was a designer who intimately understood the mechanics of the physique and had in depth information of supplies and manufacturing. He used this experience to create empowering visions for all folks, particularly girls, together with his archetypal superheroine silhouettes.”
Sandrine Groslier, Mugler Fashion and Fragrance Global President, says, “Always forward of his time, Manfred Thierry Mugler constructed a world mixing fantasy, extravagance, and experimentation. I additionally see Mugler as a troublemaker and a sculptor of fantasies, who by no means had sufficient extravagances. Mugler used to say, ‘My restrict is NO restrict.’ Presenting Couturissime in New York City is the fruits of the dream we had seven years in the past, after we started to think about the largest exhibition ever devoted to the artist and the model.”
“I’m so excited to convey Couturissime to Brooklyn,” says Casey Cadwallader, Creative Director of Mugler. “The exhibition is a vibrant journey by Manfred Thierry Mugler’s imaginative and prescient and legacy. A real artistic working in his personal lane, every part he touched, from silhouettes and craft to casting and perfume, was completely different. He was at all times true to himself, as a result of it was the solely manner he knew the way to be.”
Ticket InformationReserve timed tickets for Thierry Mugler: Couturissime by visiting my.brooklynmuseum.org. Members could have entry to untimed tickets and particular Member hours, together with a preview on November 17 and early entry on Saturdays at 10am. To turn into a Member, go to www.brooklynmuseum.org/help/be a part of or electronic mail [email protected].
Exhibition Credit scoreThierry Mugler: Couturissime was initiated, produced and circulated by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, in collaboration with the Maison Mugler.
The exhibition is curated by Thierry-Maxime Loriot, visitor curator for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
The Brooklyn presentation is coordinated by Matthew Yokobosky, Senior Curator of Fashion and Material Culture, Brooklyn Museum.
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