RIP Mugler (is Balmain next?!)
the end of NYFW, gloriously unique jewelry and an "I told you so" moment.
The Starter 🍤
Oh Mugler, we had a good run. WWD announced that Casey Cadwallader (current Creative Director) will part ways with Mugler, admitting the brand into the nauseating, seemingly never-ending game of “Creative Director Musical Chairs”.
This is a short timeline of my feelings toward Mugler over the last few years:
Prior to 2021 - *silence….crickets* Apart from that one time Lady Gaga walked in the show.
2021 - The spiral jeans/leggings/bodysuit attached themselves like parasites on my fashion-hungry brain. In all honesty, you kind of had to be there - as much as I am sick to death of those pieces now, I do have a soft spot for them.
They catapulted Casey Cadwallader’s Mugler straight into the spotlight. The spiral pieces were sexy and bordering on vulgar in some cases, and whilst very 2021, the sex appeal was still very Thierry Mugler. I bought a piece or two, I flirted with buying more - Mugler was back on the map in a commercial way. In a way outside of the odd celebrity archival pull for a red carpet moment.
2023 - I went to see the Thierry Mugler: Couturissime exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum and was completely hypnotised by the brand. Especially because of its roots in costume design, and we all know I love the fantasy (might do a whole post on that). Mugler X H&M dropped later on in 2023, and it was the first of it’s kind in that, it was the first designer collab that pretty much replicated the current offerings…just at a fraction of the price. Inevitably, if you’d been buying the aforementioned spiral jeans and leggings a few months prior to this collaboration, you were pissed off. Here’s where Mugler sort of shot themselves in the foot, by basically implying “we can give you the same thing at 20% of the price”.
2024 - Towards the end of 2024 I started to feel a little tired of the brand’s spiral antics and wanted Casey to revisit the costume-y tailoring of the brand’s past. Now, I may just be a Pisces with some decent telepathy or something was in the water, because Mugler’s SS25 show was what I was after. The villainous tailoring was back, suits that made you quiver in fear, vertiginous platforms with a lethal flick of the heel. I loved it…and now my Mugler fantasy may be over.
In terms of the money-makers for most brands - the Mugler bags felt like a bit of a non-starter. I never saw them anywhere - be it in these streets or on social media. As for the shoes, they had a successful collaboration with Jimmy Choo in 2022 and stayed out of footwear until last year. You may be as surprised as I was, to find out that there’s quite a hefty shoe collection on their website.
Categorically, Cadwallader has done brilliant things for the brand, hey, we weren’t even talking about it prior to 2021! WWD stated:
Under his tenure, the brand said it logged double- and triple-digit growth rates from 2020 onward and counted around 150 retail partners as of 2023.
Just because Casey Cadwallader is leaving doesn’t mean the brand is dead, Cassie. Yes, you have a point and maybe I’m being miserable and pessimistic, but I have a sad little feeling that the Spiral Era was our last big hurrah for the brand. Unless it gets an incredibly brilliant new Creative Designer, who has the right defibrillator to give it some longevity. My fave little SS25 collection will probably not get as much hype as she deserved, with all the chopping and changing…nonetheless she may end up in some great sample sales. A win is a win.
AND YET I HAVE A THEORY…
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