Design Hero: Mugler
Creating an immersive experience of the life, career, and accomplishments of Manfred Thierry Mugler.
Initial Research
Full Name: Manfred Thierry Mugler
Throughout the course of his life the designer went by several different variations of his name. His first label was named ‘Thierry Mugler’, which later changed to just ‘Mugler’, and later in old age he went by just his first name ‘Manfred’.
Born: December 21, 1948, Strasbourg, France
Died: January 23, 2022, Vincennes, France
Education: Mugler joined the Ballet of the National Rhine Opera aged 14. He simultaneously attended the Strasbourg School of Decorative Arts until he graduated.
Career Path / Timeline:
- At 20, Mugler moved to Paris where he started designing for a boutique called Gudule.
- 2 years later he started freelance designing in Paris, London, Milan and Barcelona for ready-to-wear fashion houses.
- 1973 — Mugler launched his first collection called “Café de Paris”
- 1974 — Mugler launched his label ‘Thierry Mugler’ and Its first ready-to-wear collection
- 1978 — He opened his first boutique in Paris
- 1984 — He created and put on the first ever fashion show open to the public
- 1992 — he released his first haute couture collection, which really put him on the map for his outrageous, costume-like pieces
- 1992 — Introduction of “Angel”, the first gourmand fragrance in history
- 2002 — Mugler steps away from fashion to take a break
“Fashion was an incredible means of artistic expression in the 70s, 80s and 90s, but it wasn’t like that anymore in the 2000s when creation was completely stifled by marketing and business.”
- 2003 — The Shutdown of the Ready-To-Wear Line
- 2009 — Mugler’s comeback as “Manfred”. Returned to the public as the artistic advisor for Beyoncé and created costumes for her world tour
- In 2010, Nicola Formichetti was appointed as the creative director of the Thierry Mugler with Mugler still as the face of the brand and still making executive decisions
- He worked with many celebrities including Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian, Cardi B, etc. later in the 2010s, creating more costume-like pieces for specific events.
Inspirations:
He draws his inspiration from the “most beautiful animal on Earth: the human being.” Contrary to the usual dichotomous way of thinking, Mugler does not separate between humans and animals: they are one for him. This philosophy is evident in many of his creations. He doesn’t have an
Style:
The works of Mugler were characterized by the eroticism and the futurism. The formative aesthetic of eroticism were specified into the sexualism, primitivism and fetishism, and those of futurism were divided into the cosmocorps and the grotesque. Mugler played on the signature traditional style of women’s fashion in the 50s and 60s and made it more empowering with the use of exaggerated silhouettes. This very theatrical, costume-like fashion is what caused Mugler to become so well known later in the 80s and 90s. His distinctive designs were characterized by broad shoulders, tiny waists and plunging necklines. The use of plastic-like futuristic fabric in his sculpted and architectural clothing became a trademark. The wide padded shoulders of his early designs became one of the benchmark looks of the following decade. During this time he worked extensively in plastic, latex, and other materials typically associated with fetish wear. These fabrics and materials created a very futuristic look to all of his pieces that people called the “Mugler twist”.
Shows:
Unlike most fashion shows today which are over in the blink of an eye, when it came to a Mugler presentation attendees were fully aware they’d be locked in for an hour or so to watch the designer’s fully-formed vision unfold. Rejecting the label of “fashion designer”, Mugler instead called himself a director, believing fashion “had to be shown in its musical and theatrical environment”. Mugler has described many times that before he got into fashion he previously wanted to be a director.
“Fashion is a movie. Every morning when you get dressed, you direct yourself. I want to sublimate the body to make people dream.”
Inclusivity:
Mugler was ahead of time in his choice of models who he had wearing his designs. According to the authoritative fashion magazine WWD, Mugler was the first designer to have celebrities to showcase his creations at fashion shows. He has created custom pieces in haute couture fashion shows for many famous celebrities including Diana Ross, Carla Bruni, Grace Jones, etc. He was also one of the first designers to champion diversity and inclusivity in his runway shows, often addressing racism and ageism. He included models of all races, body types, and ages. He was even known for incorporating non-traditional models such as drag queens, porn stars and transgender women in the ’80s and ’90s when it wasn’t deemed acceptable.
Physical Appearance (Symbolism):
Something interesting I learned from my research was that Mugler was later recognized by his very distinctive appearance. His facial structure drastically changed later in life, Mugler suffered a series of accidents that permanently changed the look of his face. He destroyed his nose in a Jeep crash. However, he didn’t allow this to break him down and instead treated his body as a work of art. Much like his futuristic fashion designs, he treated his body as yet another futuristic work of art. He focused on working out and building up his muscles and exceeding the potential and limits he previously had on his body. As he described his designs previously,
“The potential of your body is limitless”
which is exactly how he treated his own body. He took his injury as a chance to be creative and had bone from his hip put into his chin after the motorcycle accident, instead of having synthetic plastic put into his face. He discussed his journey with his appearance as a representation of his growth.
Famous/most recognizable designs:
Poster:
Inspirations:
After doing some research I found Mugler’s style and over ideology to be very dramatic, theatrical, and futuristic. From watching his videos of his old haute couture shows from the 80s and 90s and I found that he consistently used this violet-blue color to illuminate the show and highlight his pieces. He also used a more muted version it as his logo.
He also used a lot of metals in his materials so I though it would be cool to somehow incorporate that into the type. I initially got inspiration from sci-fi movie posters which kind of emphasized this futuristic space age-type feeling:
Sketches + Iterations:
I used the shape of his logo to create a metallic version of his logo, which is inspired by what is now used for the brand, but still translates as Mugler:
I used this to create a design that I thought would be futuristic and theatrical:
Rough sketches: For the rest of my sketches I focused on also creating a a theatrical look but I tried to emphasize different things in each poster. I knew I wanted to have a darker look to emphasize the drama and theatrics so I stuck to mostly black backgrounds.
After presenting my sketches in class, the feedback I got was the blue light revealing the letters was really intriguing so I decided to explore that one further. I was able to learn how to manipulate certain effects in Illustrator to create a more high fidelity version of this look.
Critique:
From my feedback in class and from a meeting later with Brett I got the following feedback:
- Get rid of the UFOs, just include the blue light
- Try to integrate the images within the type more
- Emphasize portrait more (portrait is missing form one of them)
- Break up the gris a bit, try to create more visual consistency and vary the scale of the objects
- Vary the scale of the letters more dramatically
Finalizing the Poster:
I eventually ended up liking this design the best so I iterated on this for a while, getting the image placement, typesetting, and color just right. I like the balance in this poster because while the type and the portrait both feel very dramatic, I like the amount of white space there is that allows for room to breathe.
Booklet:
Initial Sketches: I started out by doing some very rough thumbnails for the layout of my book and I came across some consistent patterns and themes that kept showing up, like the consistent black, white, and blue color palette and the same futuristic effect that I had in my poster.
Carrying over the metal type effect I had in my poster, I wanted to use that to create a specific look or brand for my designer:
Potential Covers:
I eventually was stuck between these two patterns as I was trying to figure out which one would integrate into the rest of spreads better.
Trying to integrate patterns into spreads:
App/Mobile Experience:
Information Architecture:
Since I am working on my book and the app at the same time, I have been going back and forth with on what my style and over visual system is going to be. I eventually decided on the M pattern for the background of the app. I used the diamond pattern to create a menu/navigation button to guide users throughout.
