Famed for his sculptural designs that celebrate (and redefined) the female form, Manfred Thierry Mugler was a seminal figure in fashion throughout the 1980s and 1990s who rather seamlessly translated his work to the internet age. 

Mugler dressed Madonna, posed with Jerry Hall and generally became known as fashion’s best radical. Before the age of Instagram, he had an equal amount of cachet, serving as close friend and creative confidant to the likes of David Bowie and Diana Ross. 

In 2003, Mugler stepped away from his eponymous label. He would go on to serve as artistic director for Beyoncé’s I Am... world tour. Meanwhile, the Mugler label, now designed by American designer Casey Cadwallader, has dressed the likes of Rihanna, Cardi B and Lady Gaga. Mugler came out of retirement to create Kim Kardashian West’s now famous ‘wet dress’ for the 2019 Met Gala. 

Mugler is the look that many associate with nostalgic, nineties fashion. 

Style Editor of THE GLOSS Aislinn Coffey says, “For me, it’s always been about Thierry Mugler’s corsetry. Those corsets, and the way he constructed tailoring, particularly jackets …” Mugler did celebrity dressing before it was a thing, according to Coffey. “In the late 1980s it was all about Madonna in that metallic body armour. More recently, when Kim Kardashian West wore Thierry Mugler ‘wet dress’ to the Met Gala in 2019, that was a real moment.”

For Deputy Editor of THE GLOSS Penny McCormick, it’s all about that iconic George Michael video for Too Funky, where some of the finest 90s supermodels are dressed in Mugler. “Linda Evangelista hamming it up in the video of George Michael’s Too Funky … She’s wearing Mugler as are the other models Eva Herzigová, Tyra Banks, Nadja Auermann along with drag artist Joey Arias and Lypsinka who also feature in this iconic video co-directed by the designer and George Michael. (In a rarely seen director’s cut, by the way, Mugler added models-turned-actors Justin Chambers and Djimon Hounsou, transforming the storyline into something wild and outrageous).” 

A Mugler moment was, in many ways, true fashion escapism. “Pushing boundaries (google his famous quip to Kim Basinger in the fashion film Prêt-à-Porter), I loved Mugler’s irreverence and sense of fun, fusing pop and high fashion. At their extreme, his clothes were cartoon-like but his skill with seam, stitching, cut and fabric all embraced the traditional beauty of the hourglass figure,” McCormick says.

For others, Mugler’s impact wasn’t as much on their wardrobe, as their makeup bag. Speaking of Angel, the wildly popular perfume by Thierry Mugler, Beauty Editor of THE GLOSS Sarah Halliwell recalls its sheer impact on the world of beauty when it launched in 1992. 

“Angel eau de parfum was a genuine groundbreaker, a gourmand designed to overwhelm our taste buds as well as our noses. A blast from the past, it explodes with cotton candy, coconut and just about every fruit note you can think of, and has heralded an entire parade of chocolatey, sugar-high scents through the 90s and beyond. You either love it or absolutely detest it, but you simply cannot ignore it.”