One of the most elusive parts about luxury fashion brands like Louis Vuitton, Mugler, or Dior is that they don’t produce their clothing in a timely manner with cheaper fabrics to fit trends. They dictate the trends, while fast fashion brands like Shein, Forever 21, and H&M rush to copy them. Fast fashion is always more affordable, but is equally guaranteed to fall apart within three washes.
Mugler is known for their architectural style. Think corsets, broad shoulders, and cinched waists – it’s about illusions and futuristic looks, and Thierry Mugler’s visions have been worn by celebrities like Cardi B and Bella Hadid on red carpets and runways across the world. And now, they’ve decided to collaborate with fast fashion’s finest: H&M.
It’s a bit of a peculiar mashup that doesn’t quite make sense. While I love the preview of the H&Mugler collection, which drops May 11, I can’t help but wonder why it’s happening. First of all, fast fashion is controversial on its own. Bad for the environment, bad conditions for their workers, bad materials, bad everything.
But to attach Mugler’s precious luxury name to fast fashion is eyebrow-raising. H&M has some of the lowest-priced clothing available in your local mall, while Mugler is often sold in standalone stores surrounded by Gucci and St. Laurent buildings. However, for this collection, they’re said to be meeting in the middle, price-wise.
Mugler’s creative director Casey Cadwallader has designed the collection to stay true to Mugler while bringing it into the homes of those who can’t normally afford the brand’s steep pricing.
“I was determined for this collection to be true Mugler. The details and quality of every piece had to be exactly as we do them, and I wanted to showcase the energy of Mugler, which has always been about clothes that allow for personal liberation. You can be so many different versions of yourself in Mugler.”
This collaboration isn’t that surprising for H&M, who has had several successful luxury collaborations in the past with brands like Karl Lagerfeld, Versace, and Kenzo. For this Mugler collab, H&M was looking to hone in on the silhouette-hugging, confidence-inducing Mugler classic look.
“We are proud to celebrate the legacy of Manfred Thierry Mugler with this collection,” says Ann-Sofie Johansson, creative advisor at H&M. “We were all honored to get to know Manfred, and it feels very special that he was involved at the initial stages together with Casey and the house of Mugler. Casey has done such an incredible job at paying homage to history, and to the archive while making the collection totally contemporary. Under him, Mugler has become one of the most innovative and exciting houses on today’s fashion landscape.”
Thierry Mugler was a favorite among all celebrities. He returned from a 20-year hiatus in 2019 to create Kim Kardashian’s wet Met Gala look. After passing away last January, this collab is said to honor Mugler’s iconic looks in his memory.
When Manfred Thierry Mugler passed away last year, he was in the early stages of a new project. A collaboration with H&M—one that will bring the ultra-viral, outré brand to a wider audience—was one of the last things the iconic designer worked on with Casey Cadwallader, Mugler’s creative director. “It was so great that we knew that he wanted to do it and that he was so excited about it. That gave us something to have in our hearts. We wanted to do this really well for him,” the youthful and energetic Cadwallader, a New Hampshire native, says during an interview at a Paris showroom.
Courtesy of the designer
When Mugler first made a splash in the ’80s and ’90s, his shows were filled with statuesque and often boundary-breaking models: Grace Jones, Connie Fleming, Naomi Campbell. His casting was a move forward for fashion in terms of race, age, and gender expression, and strikingly innovative for its time. Cadwallader, who became creative director in 2017, has seen interest in Mugler skyrocket in recent years and understands the outsize role the brand plays in pop culture today. Clients like Cardi B, Kim Kardashian, and Beyoncé have helped Mugler’s sexy and avant-garde looks become recognizable worldwide. (Thierry Mugler: Couturissime, an exhibition of Mugler’s work, is currently on view at the Brooklyn Museum.)
Carlijn Jacobs
Cadwallader knows that working with H&M will give young fans an opportunity to wear Mugler for the first time, and he sees great meaning in the chance to be a part of that. “This is going to have so much more visibility than Mugler does itself,” he says. H&M agrees. “The idea with collaborations is to offer customers a designed piece they maybe couldn’t afford any other way,” says creative advisor Ann-Sofie Johansson.
Courtesy of the designer
The success of the 109-piece collection—which comes out next month and includes womenswear, menswear, and accessories—hinged on being able to recreate the high-quality fabrics and meticulous attention to detail that go into Mugler’s architectural silhouettes on a much larger scale. It was Cadwallader’s biggest concern, and something he felt increasingly assured of as he went further along in the design process with H&M. The company’s greater production capacity and broader ability to source materials allowed the line to maintain the brand’s integrity at a more accessible price. “A lot of the fabrics are the same ones that I use. And in some cases they’ve been developed to be more sustainable or to go for a better price without giving up on the technicalities, which has been so nice,” he says. Among the archival pieces Cadwallader included was an update of Mugler’s 1981 Vampire dress, a cocktail number that was worn by Dua Lipa on Saturday Night Live and seen on HBO’s Euphoria. “It’s so much about the body as a sculpture,” he says.
Casey Cadwallader and Ann-Sofie Johansson.
Carlijn Jacobs
Production methods weren’t the only adjustments to be made in order to welcome slightly less adventurous dressers into the world of Mugler. Many of his designs “are so bold that they push the edge of wearability, and I’m very happy and proud to do that. But with this collaboration, I knew where to control things and where to rein it in,” Cadwallader says. That meant creating pieces with a bit more coverage and pared-back details. “It was about thinking about how to keep the essence but simplify things for more mass appeal and accessibility, where people wouldn’t be put off. In fashion circles, you can make the craziest thing and everyone’s like, ‘Let’s give it a try.’ But I want someone who doesn’t know what Mugler is to see it and be like, ‘I can wear this.’”
A version of this article appears in the April 2023 issue of ELLE.
After a three-year hiatus, Mugler is back on the runway — and with quite the star-studded cast.
Ziwe made her catwalk debut at the brand’s Fall 2023 show, donning a lacy black set, featuring a mini skirt and long-sleeved bolero, with tall leather boots, matching black lipstick and hair pulled back into a high ponytail. (Was she a Mugler exclusive this season? Either way, she made for quite an iconic guest.) Also modeling the collection was Casey Cadwallader favorite Dominique Jackson, musician Arca and fashion week regular Paloma Elsesser, as well as industry titans Amber Valletta, Eva Herzigova and Debra Shaw.
Per WWD, a representative from Mugler stated that this wasn’t “a classical return to the runway.” Its latest stays true to the label’s definitive style and the direction Cadwallader has taken the brand, with its architectural shapes, broad shoulders, cinched waists and futuristic fabrics. Fall 2023 has bodysuits, dresses, corsets and lingerie, all enhanced by sharp tailoring and revealing mesh cutouts.
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While Mugler has been on a fashion week runway hiatus until now, the brand’s presence has hardly left the cultural zeitgeist, with the Couturissime exhibition opening in New York and celebrities like Kylie Jenner continuing to embrace its expansive archive.
Sure, it’s “a tale as old as time,” but Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” actually turned 30 this year — a full Selena Gomez, for comparison.
So, on Thursday, ABC celebrated with a live-action and animated extravaganza directed by “Step Up” and “Crazy Rich Asians” auteur Jon M. Chu, headlined by marquee talent: H.E.R. as Belle, Josh Groban as Beast, Shania Twain as Mrs. Potts, Martin Short as Lumière and more. With clips of the original animation being interspersed with the stage performance, the costumes by Marina Toybina (winner of six Emmys, two of which were for “The Masked Singer”) helped create seamless continuity, while honoring the significance of the 1991 classic to ardent fans.
“The most challenging part is, how do you pay respect to the classic, but at the same time, try to give a [modern] take on the characters?” says Toybina.
With her team, Toybina built around 300 original costumes in just over two and a half months. Ahead, she takes us through the costume highlights.
Belle’s ‘Provincial’ Aesthetic
Belle (H.E.R.) in a modern-leaning denim dress, accessorized with a wicker basket and a book.
Photo: Christopher Willard/Courtesy of ABC
Toybina meshed 18th-century period authenticity with the vivid animation in our memories to introduce H.E.R.’s Belle as she goes about her day in her “provincial town.” She considered and sampled roughly “40 different tones” of organic fabrics, like cotton and linen, to illustrate Belle’s small village origins, before ultimately landing on a vibrant blue and circle-patterned denim for the overall dress, worn over a white puff-sleeve blouse.
The silhouette — with a corset and v-shaped stomacher — are period-correct, but Toybina forwent the structural padding under the soft muslin skirt layers. The end result communicates that Bell is a “free spirit and somebody that’s unique and stands out from the village,” she says.
“I made it more my own by bringing a little bit of a modern touch as far as adding certain details and trims, like an old-school belt and these worn-out shoes. I wanted there to be a life and a story to the character at the same time, and to make it as accurate [to history, but as] modern as I could.”
Belle’s Wintry Pink Cape and Gown
Belle’s pink dupioni gown.
Photo: Christopher Willard/Courtesy of ABC
The castle’s beloved staff-turned-homewares observe “Something There” between the Beast and Belle, who’s changed into a gown and cloak more appropriate for captivity. Memories of her pink, fur-trimmed ensemble from the movie remain just as vivid as the duo’s playful snowball fight.
“I can’t even tell you how many swatches I had of getting us to the right tones,” says Toybina, who referred to the exact Pantone shades of pink, while again remaining historically accurate to the corseted structure of the gown. “This is where you see an evolution of her wardrobe: There’s a pannier-like foundation underneath the three-layered skirting.”
In connecting all the familiar characters to each other and tracking back to the striking animation, Toybina “focused on significant fabrics — a dupioni and a taffeta to really bring those interesting textures to the show,” she says. Belle’s pink gown is constructed of multiple silk dupioni layers to bring the animated character to life. “But again, changing the design just enough to make it a little bit more contemporary.”
Toybina modernized the iconic look with a ribboned lace-up detail on the bodice, ruffle trims on the capelet, tonal color-blocking and on-trend matching gloves.
“I did go with a faux-fur accent on the cape,” she adds.
Belle’s Gilded Yellow Princess Gown
Belle’s new yellow-gold gown, with petal-like skirting.
Photo: Christopher Willard/Courtesy of ABC
Belle’s yellow finale ball gown remains the most iconic look from the 1991 film, immortalized by princess dolls, Halloween costumes and movie merch. For the 2017 live-action film, Jacqueline Durran even told Fashionista that determining the exact shade of yellow was “really a process.”
Toybina more than agrees, explaining that she conducted her own forensic analysis of the origin of the iconic shade, asking: “Is it a gold dress? Is it a yellow dress?” She considered the original film and any color-correcting, plus studied angles and shading.
“It was a gold dress that then evolved with time into a yellow dress,” says Toybina about the results of her research. “It was a mixture of both.”
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Ultimately, she decided to “not do a replica” of the original, also to highlight H.E.R.’s portrayal of the influential character: “I really wanted that to become her moment, as well.”
Fairy tale ending.
Photo: Christopher Willard/Courtesy of ABC
Toybina opted for luxurious textiles and techniques, like four types of pleating to create regal volume. “I definitely took it a step forward in the gold elements in the accents — and to make it more now,” she says, noting how she took “a very fashion approach” in designing the gown, also pulling inspiration from contemporary designers such as Alexander McQueen, Thierry Mugler and Daniel Roseberry’s Schiaparelli.
She also illustrated the fairy tale’s underlying theme of the rose through the gown design. “What can I do to make the yellow version of the rose?” she says. “What can I do to create the softness and elegance?” So, she experimented to create a specialty drape that represents rose petals.
“That was my inspiration to finish off the show strong, with a different interpretation of our hero dress,” says Toybina, “turning H.E.R. into that love story and [giving her] that happily-ever ending moment with my version of the gown.”
The Enchanted Costumes of Lumière, Mrs. Potts and Cogsworth
Lumière (Martin Short), Mrs. Potts (Shania Twain), Chip (Leo Abelo Perry) and Cogsworth (David Alan Grier).
Photo: Christopher Willard/Courtesy of ABC
When you have triple-threats like Martin Short, Shania Twain and David Alan Grier as singing and emoting castle décor, you just cannot cover their faces with costumes ‚ or so decided Toybina, Chu and producers after many deep discussions.
“I really wanted to let these characters come to life, and you can’t really do that when you’re restricting them,” says Toybina, who studied copious iterations of “Beauty and the Beast” performances, from Broadway to middle-school plays. “I wanted to see what magic is brought forward to these characters in the past.”
Toybina applied techniques learned and developed over her career, which also includes “So You Think You Can Dance” and Katy Perry’s 2015 Super Bowl Halftime Show. “Once I saw the casting, I started manipulating the artwork to make sure it was just the right costume for each our cast,” she says.
For Short’s Lumière, Toybina employed textile pattern-making and fabric manipulation to “create this swirl of a candelabra effect,” as opposed to using a molded structural design. (Though she did use latex builds to attach faux burning candles around decorative arm bands.) She also infuse historically-accurate interior design details, like reflecting the sheen and type of gold from the period.
To coordinate Lumière with Twain’s Mrs. Potts and Grier’s Cogsworth, Toybina created patterns with handmade latex and silicone decals, to emulate elaborate Rococo curves and molding. The intricate golden detailing runs teapot-lid-to-corset-to-porcelain-body-and-spout on Mrs. Potts, as well as on Cogsworth’s gilded headpiece and shoulder panels — “very much inspired by the now and details of what would it look like if you were a teapot and bringing this elegance,” says Toybina.
The Not-so-Beastly Prince
Prince only (Josh Groban).
Photo: Christopher Willard/Courtesy of ABC
“It’s the most unexpected way to represent the Beast,” says Toybina of Groban’s double-portrayal of the Prince-turned-Beast-turned-back-to-Prince.
Let’s just say that Chu and Toybina successfully addressed the age-old controversy of Beast v. the Prince in the forever-jarring finale reveal by having Groban operate and inhabit a 10-foot-tall Beast puppet. “It’s done in the most intricate yet detailed, simplistic and just brilliant way possible,” says Toybina, who custom-designed the puppet. (Head fabricator of the Beast team Erik Haskell led the build.)
The Prince-Beast.
Photo: Christopher Willard/Courtesy of ABC
The audience can see and experience Groban’s facial expressions and body language as the cursed Prince. “By [Groban] being that connected and able to emote through physically puppeteering the Beast, it’s almost feeling like he’s trapped and couldn’t get out,” says Toybina, like he literally “has the weight on the shoulder.”
She coordinated the Prince and Beast throughout via connecting dark-toned colorways and textiles, which also allude to the transformation and character evolution.
“The Prince is still present with us through this entire storyline, and, at the end, all we see is a transformation once through his costume,” says Toybina. This avoids the introduction of a whole new Prince face in the finale, when we’re used to the cuddly Beast at that point: “Because of that, you stay so connected to his character, beginning to end.”
The first time Casey Cadwallader saw “Thierry Mugler: Couturissime” — the buzzy museum retrospective tracing the highly influential founding designer’s career — it was still the early days of his tenure as creative director of Mugler. (He joined the house in December 2017.)
“To see such a tour de force of his best things all side by side made me a little bit jittery,” he says, adding with sarcasm, “I was like, ‘Oh cool, this looks easy.’”
The exhibit first opened at the Musée des Beaux Arts de Montréal in the spring of 2019, and has since traveled to Rotterdam, Munich and Paris. “Couturissime” is making its final stop stateside at the Brooklyn Museum, from this Friday, Nov. 18 to May 7, 2023. Even now, though, that nervous, “fear-inducing” wonder is still there for Cadwallader.
“I went and I was like, ‘Damn, this is intense,’” he says.
“Thierry Mugler: Couturissime” makes its fifth and final stop at the Brooklyn Museum.
Photo: Courtesy of Brooklyn Museum
Cadwallader is nearing his five-year anniversary at Mugler — a massive milestone for any designer, but especially one helming an iconic fashion house; it’s a position with famously high turnover. A lot has happened during his tenure: In addition to reigniting interest in the brand, he’s also made it a go-to for some of the most sought-after performers in the world, like Dua Lipa, Megan thee Stallion and Beyoncé. Meanwhile, its extensive archive has become a popular resource for celebrities like Cardi B and Kylie Jenner to pull from for big events. Then, more recently, Thierry Mugler passed away.
“I was much more in contact with him, and that was something I earned over time,” Cadwallader says of Mugler, the man. “I had no idea that he was going to pass — no one did — so there was this amazing shock about, ‘Oh, these conversations that were going to happen now aren’t going to happen,’ which was really hard.”
“The other thing [is], he was always watching,” he continues. “He was always on the sidelines, and I was always thinking about that. Now that he’s passed, there’s this really big shift where I more deeply understand my responsibility to take it forward. It’s not that it wasn’t that way before, but without him being there, it feels different. I really feel responsible for making the brand lasting, making the brand stronger, making the brand bigger, making sure that the brand’s past is respected.”
Cadwallader himself is a reverent student of the archive: As soon as he got to Mugler, he’d pull different pieces and examine them one by one. Even now, he’ll go back to the source material — but he’s very intentional about how he uses it.
“I made this deal with myself that I would look at it, take pictures, put it away and just let it come out of me the way that felt natural — that’s my way of making sure that it’s my version,” he says. “I realized [the archive] was so extensive and there are so many different themes and ideas and materialities that I prefer to let my nose point in one direction, fall in love with something for a season — one, two, three things max — and digest those.”
For example, Cadwallader might start with an embroidered corset from a decades-old haute couture collection. Through his lens, that inspiration becomes the starting point for a ready-to-wear corset made with “a laser-cut, ultrasonically-welded lycra, where it breathes and stretches almost like sport clothing.”
“What I’m trying to do,” he says, “is to bring those codes and make it much more wearable day to day… There’s something interesting about shifting that materiality and the language that makes it hit people differently now.”
A look from Casey Cadwallader’s Fall 2021 collection for Mugler.
Photo: Imaxtree
Even that technique ties Cadwallader’s work to that of the man whose name is on the tag: “He was obsessed with new materials. He did entire shows dedicated to faux fur or lycra or latex or whatever it was that was new — now, I’m just trying to do the same with what’s offered to me in the modern world.”
Renewed public interest in a fashion house’s archive can be a tricky thing if the brand’s still up and running. There’s a risk that the storied history might eclipse the current vision. In the case of Mugler, though, the Casey Cadwallader era and the Thierry Mugler revival have coexisted, each attracting attention and renown in its own right — a rare, but obviously advantageous, phenomenon.
“The thing for me is that I love the archives so much and I respect it so much that I want everyone to know about it,” he says. “I’m also not the kind of designer who came in and just did what I wanted. I became Casey at Mugler — I totally transformed myself because of that archive. I really believe in what the brand was in the past and that should be a lot of what it is in the future. Luckily, we got along, the archive and I.”
Another through-line that connects Cadwallader to Mugler, the person, is a love of performance and performers, and centering them in their work. Dressing and designing for music artists was one of Cadwallader’s priorities at the house — so much so, that he canceled pre-collections in favor of “special projects,” like costuming a tour or working on music videos. So, Mugler only shows two seasons annually, spring and fall; the rest you see on stage.
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“It says so much the way someone moves, the fact that they’re performing — it exudes this sexy confidence,” he says.
Megan thee Stallion has become a frequent collaborator of Cadwallader’s, often wearing his Mugler designs on stage, like at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards.
Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for MRC
It’s paid off for the brand, too: Mugler has gone viral time and time again for its custom looks for Dua Lipa’s tours, its ongoing relationship with Megan Thee Stallion (Cadwallader even directed the music video for “Plan B”) and many other artist collaborations.
“It presents itself as a calling card for the brand, because then people identify the aesthetics of the things that these people wear,” he says. “I tried very carefully to interweave things, so that if you love Dua Lipa’s couture outfit with 200,000 crystals on it, you might also like the leggings that don’t have the crystals. It’s trying to always make sure that when we put all that effort into those stage projects, there’s something about the collection that’s there.”
This kind of work — which Cadwallader dubs “the new couture” — “serves as my laboratory,” he says, “my no-limits, what-do-you-want-to-do thing, instead of the can-we-sell-this part of my brain.” It’s also something he takes very seriously.
“If you imagine, ‘Okay, this is for Beyoncé — she better be able to dance,’ because I’m not gonna be responsible for her not being able to dance,” he says. “It’s the same thing as doing someone’s wedding gown: You’re going to try your very best because you’re giving this piece of work to someone’s really important moment. It becomes a real love.” (Cadwallader created a major after-party look for Chloë Sevigny’s wedding in May.)
There are a few things that make a Mugler piece a Mugler piece. For one, Cadwallader believes it “should be identifiable from across the street.” There are the aesthetic signatures, but it goes much deeper than that.
“There’s an attitude to it that has to stay for me,” he says. “The big thing overall is that Mugler is supposed to induce confidence. It’s supposed to be something that you don’t feel just so-so about. You’re supposed to touch it and be like, ‘Oh my God, this is crazy. This is so exciting.’ By putting it on, you’re not just being you right in the middle — you’re being super-sonic you.”
Historically for the house, that has meant emphasizing the body. More specifically, it’s about “this very strong respect for the body, to always try to highlight it and make it look as strong as possible,” according to Cadwallader. “That doesn’t mean you have to have a certain figure. It means that you have to love your figure and how to work with it. There are simple things you can say, like a jacket shoulder has to be strong, the waist has to be nipped, the hip has to be curvy — but more than it being about those specifics, it’s more about the feeling that it gives you: very sensual, excited, understanding of yourself.”
Materiality and silhouette are two characteristics that tie Cadwallader’s Mugler back to the house’s founder.
Photo: Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum
He’s done it so far with his Mugler ready-to-wear, which heavily leans on the form-fitting and the corseted, often working with a restrained color palette to really emphasize the garment and its silhouette.
“What I’ve been trying to do over these years is to be very, very strong with the aesthetics of what I’m doing so that they’re very shocking and bare and special and thought-provoking,” Cadwallader says. “Eventually, there’s a lot of room to expand that DNA into things that are slightly easier to wear.”
There’s a lot on his dream board: accessories, swimwear, underwear, makeup… And as always, he’s turning to the archive for inspiration.
“I’m really into decadent and wild textures,” he says. “I’ve been looking at the things that are a little bit more mysterious what they’re really made out of, so the ‘Chimère’ fish person with all the different colors [on display at ‘Couturissime’] is fascinating to me at the moment.”
Don’t be surprised if you spot Cadwallader at the Brooklyn Museum (though, probably not for research): “My favorite thing to do is to watch people walk through and hear what they’re saying,” he says. “There’s a lot of people who have no idea who I am. I’ll follow this nice older couple through, and the things that they say are just hilarious.”
Having the last stop of “Couturissime” be New York is “really meaningful,” especially when considering Mugler, the man, and his legacy, Cadwallader argues.
“It’s a city that was really important to Manfred — he lived here for 15 years, and it’s always been a big inspiration for him,” he says. “There’s nothing like seeing it in person. It does its own dazzling.”
