Enter the world of Mugler with Thierry Mugler: Couturissim.

The Brooklyn Museum exhibition celebrates the revolutionary career of French designer Thierry Mugler.

Rooms filled with mannequins adorned with archival pieces, perfume bottles in glass, and immersive visuals are just a small part of the Brooklyn Museum’s Thierry Mugler: Fashion exhibition. The retrospective exhibition is dedicated to the French fashion designer Thierry Mugler and is dedicated to his brilliant sixty-year career.

The first part of the exhibition consists of a darkened room displaying French-style Mugler robes – or court dresses – from the 1985 Comedie-Française production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Multimedia artist Michel Lemieux’s 2019 video “The Disappearance of Lady Macbeth” plays in the center of the room.

Further to the exhibition, mclad in plexiglass and cast metal from the Couture Fall 1995 designer collection, the annequins introduce viewers to Mugler’s Glamazon, a woman who embraces her sexuality by dressing in unorthodox materials and structured silhouettes. His previous Spring/Summer 1994 ready-to-wear collection included a crinoline leather dress, and his Spring/Summer 1998 couture collection included a draped crepe georgette dress. Both were suspended with metal fake piercings.

Mugler’s design has been hailed in both haute couture and pop culture. Singer-writers, photographers and visual artists alike have celebrated Mugler’s design in their personal pursuits, which are presented in the previous section of the exhibition. The bold work of fashion photographers Helmut Newton, David LaChapelle and Ellen von Unwerth perpetuates Mugler’s architectural and avant-garde instincts, highlighting his focus on building.

The retrospective also features music videos featuring the designer’s work, namely David Bowie’s 1979 “Boys Keep Swinging”, in which Bowie wears a sequined Mugler dress, and George Michael’s 1992 “Too Funky”, written, directed and produced by Mugler . In Michael’s video, models sing along to his song, embodying what might be called mugglerism, a brash yet fashionable approach to life.

Later in his career, Mugler went beyond fashion, experimenting with the art of perfumery. He released his first fragrance Angel in 1992 and finished Aura in 2017. In the Mugler perfume section of the exhibition, a crystal canopy rises above the display case, creating a dazzling display of jewels.

In another room of the exhibition, the iconic gold and metal corset worn by Beyoncé in her 2009 music video “Sweet Dreams” and by Celine Dion during a photo shoot in 2020, from the Mugler Fall 1995 Couture Collection, is displayed. Other elements surrounding the corset are made of materials such as metal, chromed car parts, latex and glass, and traces of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis can be traced in their construction.

This exhibition presents an expansive public showcase of the Mugler archive for the first time since each collection debuted on the runway and includes over 100 outfits. TThe theme of becoming a desired self is realized through the changing forms and raw materials of Mugler’s creations. Mugler believed that seduction and beauty were instinctive and embodied his love of art and women into fabric to enable people to reinvent themselves.

Contact Jada Jules at [email protected]