Mugler Presents Its New Spring Summer 2024 Collection

Mugler creative director Casey Cadwallader holds a deep curiosity for the natural world, with a particular fascination for the mysterious beauty of life beneath the surface of the ocean. Casey is a sailor, his childhood passion for marine biology emerges for spring summer 2024: a collection that fuses the designer’s reverence for the power of women with a theatrical ode to creatures of the deep. From the octopus to the urchin, nudibranch and jellyfish, exotic species inspire the bristling and the tentacular in, speckled prints and ombré shades. a new emphasis on fluid jersey and chiffon creates new expressions of colour, movement and shifting structure around the body.

Glowing with radiance, anatomical constructions appear as 3d printed ‘glass’ corsets, body shields and peplums in resin — rigid garments crafted in synergy with flou elements from column skirts to draped trousers. Boned corset jackets and dresses with hook-and-eye details create sinuous exoskeletons that exemplify the precision of Cadwallader’s Mugler language shrouded in billowing chiffon veils. Sprayed spiral denim radiates in shades of powdery neon, reflected in the newly cutout curves of the spiral 01 and spiral 02 handbags with twisting anodized handles. A new interpretation of the historic Zenith handbag reflects cadwallader’s architectural expertise, with a torqued construction and an injection-molded angel star.

Evolving the haute couture craftsmanship inherent to the house dna, Cadwallader explores feats of extreme artisanal creation inspired by key haute couture collections of the late 1990s. Radical homages emerge as carved miniskirt shapes and cropped ‘floating’ tailoring (1), graphic anatomical seam(2), bristling die-cut ‘feather’ effect embroideries (3), and extreme fringed outerwear (4), in a poetic reconciliation of past, present, and future.

The collection was shown inside Les Salles du Carrousel beneath the Musée du Louvre – a historical venue for fashion shows in Paris in the 1990s. Suspended from above, industrial fans transformed the white runway into a theatrical wind tunnel, bringing silhouettes to life as if seen underwater.

Key moments of craftsmanship include die-cut sequin ‘feather’ pumps and transparent sequin-embroidered bodysuits that require up to 360 hours of embroidery and 1314,000 individual elements. a transparent knit tube dress is embroidered with thousands of clear acrylic nails. a tailored overcoat features 7,900 meters of hand-dyed fringe.

(1) les tranchés” spring summer 1999
(2) ritz” fall winter 1998-99
(3) jeu de paume” spring summer 1988
(4) les insects” spring summer 1997