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Manfred Thierry Mugler, the fashion designer synonymous with the power shoulders of the 1980s, has died at the age of 73.
Mugler, who changed his name in 2002 the year he left his namesake house, passed away at the weekend. “We are devastated to announce the passing of Manfred Thierry Mugler on Sunday January 23,” reads the post on the designer’s Instagram account.
The fashion world, which was already mourning the death of American fashion journalist André Leon Talley on 18 January, has lost another major name. “He was ahead of his time, always celebrating the differences,” says Thierry-Maxime Loriot, curator of the Thierry Mugler, Couturissime exhibition currently on view at Paris’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs, speaking to Vogue Business.
As a designer, Mugler shook up the codes. His shows were huge theatrical spectacles full of celebrities and the demi-monde of Paris. He challenged definitions of haute couture with exaggerated proportions and the introduction of materials such as rubber and PVC.
The exhibition dedicated to his work travelled from Montreal to Rotterdam and Munich and had attracted a total of 700,000 visitors by the time it arrived in Paris on 30 September 2021 (it runs until 24 April). It was the fifth most visited show in the history of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. To date, more than 220,000 visitors have seen the show in Paris.
Born in Strasbourg, in north-eastern France, Mugler began his career as a professional ballet dancer before moving to Paris in 1967 to focus on fashion design. In 1973, he launched his first brand, Café de Paris, which was sold at Didier Grumbach’s store, Créateurs et Industriels. Grumbach became his business partner in 1978 and was president of the Thierry Mugler brand for two decades.
In 1992, Mugler unveiled his first couture collection and launched his fragrance Angel, a disruptive best-selling scent created from raw materials never used in fragrances before and paved the way for the “gourmand fragrances” category. Clarins, which bought the brand in the 1990s, shut down the loss-making fashion business in 2002.
Mugler left his namesake brand and changed his name (to Manfred Thierry Mugler) but continued to design stage costumes, including for Beyonce’s I Am… tour, in 2009. Meanwhile, Clarins reviewed the fashion business, tapping Nicola Formichetti who designed for four seasons from 2011 to 2013. In 2013 Clarins appointed designer David Koma, who was replaced by American designer Casey Cadwallader four years later. L’Oréal bought the fashion and fragrance brand from Clarins in 2020.
L'Oréal CEO Nicolas Hieronimus posted on Linkedin: “An unwavering and committed pioneer of diversity, inclusion and gender equality, [Mugler’s] designs explored new territory, calling on each of us to freely define our own identity and proudly become the person we want to be. Several generations will have found themselves reflected in his style and in his art.”
Mugler creative director Cadwallader has championed diversity since taking the creative helm of the house, dressing the likes of Yseult, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion. Cadwallader posted on his Instagram: “Manfred, I am so honoured to have known you and to work within your beautiful world. You changed our perception of beauty, of confidence, of representation and self empowerment. Your legacy is something I carry with me in everything I do.”
Tributes were also paid by Pascal Morand, executive president of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode: “He was a great fashion and fragrance designer and an artist who deeply marked his time. He had a strong sense of show and creative staging and gave power and confidence to women.”
Ralph Toledano, president of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, commented: “Thierry Mugler notably invented power dressing, a wardrobe intended to dress this new generation of women claiming to be the equal of men. [He] was one of the first designers from the ready-to-wear world to join the very closed circle of haute couture and his perfume Angel was a dazzling success. I also have fond memories of his fashion shows at the Zenith or at the Cirque d'Hiver, open to thousands of spectators.”
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