First ever MUGLER by Nicola Formichetti collection
Posted on Friday, January 21, 2011
Neither Tierry Mugler nor Nicola Formichetti have any formal training. None of them actually studied fashion.
But “God makes no mistakes”.
For me both of them were born with the gift of out-of-the box thinkers. Open minded visionaires. Ahead of time “fashion chefs” able to mix “ingredients” from the past, present and future.
Before he started working on the just presented “Anatomy of Change” collection,…
… Nicola – for whom Thierry Mugler was a fashion god who created his own universe – went through the archives (I’d love to get lost in) in Paris.
Garment by garment. Creation by creation.
You can read more about how he felt about becoming the creative director of MUGLER (from this season onwards, the french label and all the collections will be identified as MUGLER by Nicola Formichetti) on VMan (and when you finish, browse the site. One of my favourites!).
Nicola created the first collection that is “a modern-day punk”, “bold” and “a little bit hard”, the line that “revolves around darkness, Berlin, rebirth and death…” among other influences – “all those happy things Gaga and he like so much”…
… together with Romain Kremer, MUGLER Head Designer Men (you’ll remember Gaga wearing “Yuri” sunglasses and headpiece and high waisted pants from his AW 2010 collection; as well as several performance and tour costumes, including the white X Factor outfits Gaga’s dancers donned during the one-off bathtube perfomance).
On the “Anatomy of Change” runway we saw (not that I went to the show ♫sighs♫) black and white. Darkness and shine. Bright orange and blue. Latex and rubber. Pearls. Floating chiffon veils. Meticulously tailored jackets (awesome! I hope I’ll be able to buy one of them for my better half… or the padded pants… or the shredded ones).
Nicola and Romain absorbed Thierry’s “Hollywood glamor” and “reworked his signature suit.”
And as you all know, the music was “custom crafted” for the show by Gaga, based on one of her never heard and so awaited tracks from “Born This Way” album.
I loooved what she wrote about Nicola after the news about him becoming MUGLER creative director went official. Remember?
“Blood pumps through Nicola’s veins like perfume and cigarettes. His brain throbs with misfit royalty, glamour as punk survival, attitude as liberation, style as revolution. THIERRY MUGLER has a way with legendary lifestyle and Nicola is just that: Epic Lifestyle, Freakdom, Gorgeous or Die, The ‘fuck’ in future poetry, the street in High-Fashion. Nicola Formichetti is Fashion’s Freedom. I love him, my friend the genius, my collaborator, more than any piece of clothing or closet I possess. But don’t tell him I said that, he’ll die. He picked them all out.”
What Nicola wanted was to make sure Gaga’s fans “can have a front-row seat”, that’s why we were able to see the exclusive web-only film already 24 hrs after the show.
On MUGLER official site, on Nicola Formichetti‘s blog and exclusively on Stylelist (another fashion devoted site on my j’adore list).
If you’ve been wondering whether the body art of the model revealed bit by bit in 4 teaser visuals is photoshop, body paint, real tattoos or a mix of them, let me intruduce you to Montreal based model Rick Genest.
Nicola discovered him on Facebook and references him as one of his inspirations.
Rick, a.k.a. Zombie Boy, became the face of the first-ever MUGLER RTW collection for men. The teaser visuals were captured by Mariano Vivanco, who also did the film and whom Nicola describes as “very Renaissance statue feeling”.
And it was not photoshop. The tattoos are real. Rick’s entire body is covered with them (visit his Facebook page to see more photos).
You already know the first pieces by MUGLER Gaga was photographed wearing were the latex biker jacket and pants. Aaand…
…we’ll be getting much more “Lady Gaga in Mugler” news since a serie of custom costumes was already created for her new album art, videos and performances!!!
Can’t wait to see both all the one-off creations for Gaga and the first MUGLER by Nicola Formichetti collection of women – Nicola has been working on with Sébastien Peigné as Head Designer Women – that will be presented during Paris Fashion Week in March.
Hope for another custom tailored track by Gaga…
(… and for my dear Genie to finally appear and get me a seat to the show).
P.D.
Volando a la fisio. No me da tiempo para escribir el artículo en español. Pero ¡os quierooo!
Photos by: Sonny Vandevelde, Giovanni Giannoni, Mariano Vivanco
Credit: Nicola Formichetti’s blog, WWD, VMan, Style
Filed under Mariano Vivanco, MUGLER, Nicola Formichetti, Romain Kremer, Sébastien Peigné, Thierry Mugler