Iconic French fashion designer Thierry Mugler passed away aged 73 of natural causes on Sunday 23 January.
Born Manfred Thierry Mugler on 21 December 1948 in Strasbourg, France, the designer initially studied and performed ballet but found more success with his fashion designs when he moved to Paris in his early 20s.
Mugler launched his eponymous fashion label in the 1970s and rose to global prominence in the 1980s and early 90s. His career spanned six decades.
He was known for his theatrical designs that celebrated the female form (though he did also create menswear) by accentuating shoulders with padding, plunging necklines, constricting waists and rounding hips. He created clothes for the empowered woman – one that was unashamedly sexy and strong.
His designs have been worn by the likes of David Bowie, George Michael, Michael Jackson, Sharon Stone and more recently, Cardi B, Rihanna and Kim Kardashian.
The designer helped pave the way for transgender models, with Mugler using them in his shows as far back as 1984.
Although he retired from his label in the early 2000s, he still continued to impact the culture for the next two decades, creating one-off pieces for Lady Gaga and working as the creative advisor on Beyoncé’s I Am… Sasha Fierce world tour in 2010.
The singer honoured the late designer on her website with a montage of the many creations he made for her over the years, with the caption: “Rest in Peace, Thierry Mugler.”
Black-ish star Tracee Ellis Ross described Mugler as a “defining force in fashion… even his archive collection today seems futuristic.”
A tribute posted on his Instagram page stated that Mugler was “a visionary whose imagination… empowered people around the world to be bolder and dream bigger every day.”
Rest in Peace.
Image Credit: Marca
