It has been about a year since David Koma has taken the
reins of Thierry Mugler now known as Mugler. In this short span of time, he has
managed to do what so few of his peers have done or are even capable of and
that is... he has created a signature, a look that actually has “brand
recognition.” Don’t get me wrong here, yes, there are looks that might be
confused for earlier Donatellamommamia pieces or yore but Koma pulls it all
together as a collection that is Mugler.
Without dwelling on the DNA of the brand, it is evident to
the trained eye, and there aren’t many these days who review, that this
particular vocabulary of the Thierry era is present in a reimagined way. As
said, Koma respected what was and transforms it into what is and that my
friends takes talent, skills and vision.
The clothes retain that edge, not the fashion trend edge,
but the edge that results from slick hard lines and great precision whether in
dressmaking or tailoring. The now signature of the cut outs with some hardware
detail is effective and again becoming a trademark of the collection. This
trademark is what allows the clothes to be easily identifiable and has nothing
to do with whether you like the collection or not. These are not generic
clothes that seeming come from the “citywide communal workrooms” that
apparently hatch collections in New York, Paris and Milan.
This season the clothes are more graphic with bold stripings
and then there is what I call a scribble print which is apparently engineered
to be body conforming. The color range goes the harshest and starkest of black
and white played against the ice cream pastels that will no doubt appear again
for Spring 2016. Once again the viewer is reminded that Thierry Mugler was
indeed an architect of fashion as well as a designer who lived the precision of
cut married to the art of fashion infused with sexiness. Koma seems to have a
great deal of that esthetic and to his credit he utilizes it in the most
appealing and modern way without looking dated or retro. Imagine not having a
boat load of blah blah blah to make up for ugly clothes!
In short, to me, David Koma has reinvigorated the brand with
a fresh look while retaining so much of the past. Koma has achieved what so
many of his peers eschew in exchange for taking the easy way out and ignoring
the DNA of a blue blood brand and replacing it with some half assed generic trendoidal
vision of fashion and yes of course accompanied with some incoherent meandering
treatise fueled by ego and faux intelligentsia yet has nothing to do with the
clothes..
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