EXCLUSIVE: Mugler Is Returning to the Paris Runway
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While Mugler designer Casey Cadwallader seriously warmed up to fashion films during the pandemic, the French house plans to return to the Paris runway on Jan. 26 — in a fortified way.
It has scheduled a presentation for 8 p.m. on Jan. 26 at La Villette, a vast cultural complex on the northeastern edge of Paris where Cadwallader will parade a see now, buy now collection that’s considered fall 2022/2023.
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The event falls at the tail end of couture week in Paris, which runs from Jan. 23 to 26 this season and which typically accumulates some ready-to-wear events at either end of the schedule.
Details about the show content and format are under wraps, but it’s characterized by Mugler as a “new concept” and an “immersive experience across all channels, and in front of a live audience.”
Mugler’s last live runway show was for fall 2020.
During lockdowns, Cadwallader conceived three fast-paced films loaded with special effects; fierce, body-baring fashions, and cameos by the likes of Megan Thee Stallion, Chloë Sevigny, Hunter Schafer and Shalom Harlow.
The designer had marveled how film offered him a tool for wider consumer engagement, and he expressed some hesitation at the end of the trilogy to “go back to a simple runway show.”
“It’s not a classical return to the runway,” hinted Pascal Conte-Jodra, managing director of Mugler fashion, noting that its films garnered millions of views, the latest one more than 15 million across all channels. “We learned how to entertain, we learned how to surprise, we learned how to get attention and to please our audience.…You can trust Casey to cook up something unexpected.…At Mugler, we take risks.”
He also hinted at a runway event at “a completely different scale from what we’ve done in the past” and one with the end customer firmly in mind.
“Mugler has always been a popular brand and we didn’t want to keep the show only for the happy few,” he added.
This will be the first time Mugler will unveil a collection in January, and Conte-Jodra said it would span winter elements and more spring-like items, plus a few product categories still under wraps.
The house typically unveils two collections per year, and plans to return to the rtw fashion schedule in the fall and evolve its new concept.
Mugler’s return to IRL fashion shows comes at a fizzy time for the brand, which is currently logging triple-digit growth and “very high sell-throughs” on its online store and with select retail partners, the executive said.
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