Mugler resort 2017

David Koma is one of the very few designers who has successfully insinuated himself into a heritage brand without eradicating the brand’s history. The man knows how to mine an archive and knows how to massage the DNA of the brand that made its name on tailored, structured sexy pieces for power women of the 80s.

 

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Resort is clearly about the undulating hems and bands of color as well as the harsh contrast of black and white or the impact of acidic high octane colors. While Mugler might not be an uber-brand like Gucci or Saint Laurent, David Koma far outshines his colleagues with his consistency as well as his loyalty to the namesake designer. Respect!!

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Mugler by David Koma .. resort 2016

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..

Mugler by David Koma.. Paris ..spring 2015

 Let’s talk Mugler! Mugler 2015! David Koma might just be the one to revive the name and bring it into the 21^st century. Unquestionably this collection is head and shoulders about anything that that the hack Formichetti had produced under the name during his gleefully abbreviated tenure.

It was my understanding that Monsieur Mugler himself handpicked Mr. Koma and apparently he was quite prescient with his selection. The new designer of the brand has in one moment polished the house’s reputation after being tarnished by a media anointed designer, well actually not a designer at all... let’s just say someone who had no business to be at the helm in the first place. He had a much more personal agenda than a plan for a fabled heritage brand.

Spring 2015 brings vitality and life back to the once highly coveted brand and restores the gloss to its history. Koma has unquestionably visited the archives and also added a bit of what constitutes fashion in the 21^st century. Personally, the loose fitting or more fluid pieces were not my favorites but hardly eyesores either. No matter the silhouette the theme or unifying thread of the show continued seamlessly. 

The snake chain detail was employed with deft hand and sparingly so that it was merely a detail and not a crucial element of design. Again, this was part of the thread that held the collection together quite cohesively. Interestingly, the tailored pieces were sharp clean edged affairs but never as extreme as the originals and yet rang very true to the house DNA. The palette worked with the exclusion of the print which might have been perceived as a bit de trop or possibly forced rather than essential to the overall presentation.

Keep in mind that the original Thierry Mugler designed collections were filled with high drama and rigid standards and constructions that he created and maintained during his tenure and Koma has softened up the edges and sort of democratized them, if you catch my drift, to result in a highly commercial and well-conceived collection. OOPSY... I said that dirty word again... commercial. 

Hopefully those who are smart enough will be able to see the viability and retail opportunities that this collection now offers.

The question is if this was a groundbreaking collection and the answer is simply no! This is a collection that can pave the way back and open the brand to a whole new audience who can appreciate its esthetic. I’ll take 1 of these against 10 Rabanne’s or 5 Dior’s or any Wang Balenciaga’s. Does that tell you my reaction?

PS ..it is interesting to note that Mr. Mugler’s presentations were highly accessorized including hair and makeup while Mr. Koma showed confidently with nothing to distract from the clothes.

pre Haute Couture .. meet ALEXANDRE VAUTHIER..

With less than a week before the Haute Couture collections open for Spring 2014, it seems fitting to introduce you to my latest subject ...  Alexandre Vauthier.  The man is a gentleman of distinction in the worlds of fashion as he prepares his eponymous collections for both the couture and ready to wear.

Portrait by Marc-Antoine Coulon

It has been said that that the rules can only be broken by those who have mastered them and Monsieur Vauthier is an “A” student.  His distinctive resume include 2 extended terms of employment  that  shaped his career and taught him the rules of the “game” … first at Mugler, (when there was a Thierry present) and then at Jean Paul Gaultier in the Haute Couture aspect of that brand. What more needs to be said than he was taught by the best of the best.

The collections rendered under his name are exercises in the mastery of cutting and draping and the disciplines and rigors of fine precision tailoring and construction. The clothes are not for the faint of heart nor are they ever considered boring or run of the mill. These clothes are audacious, bold, overtly sexy and never require any of the blah blah blah that seems to accompany so many collections these days. 

In other words, the end the clothes speak for themselves and to his clientele. Today Alexandre Vauthier speaks for himself to us... Please enjoy this and please don’t forget to look for the collection that will be debut on January 21, 2014.  (http://alexandrevauthier.com/ )

A big MERCI beaucoup from moi to him!!

1-What is the most treasured possession in your wardrobe?

My Fruit of the Loom t-shirts and Nike sneakers

2-What is your most sterling trait and what trait do you treasure most in your friendships?

Determination and loyalty

3-What is your bliss?

Sleeping

4-What is your guilty secret?

Not being to sleep

5-Where is your ideal home?

Along the California coast, on El Matador beach

6-If you could not be a designer/retailer/etc:, what would you be

Lawyer or Surgeon

7-What is on your bedside table right now?

My alarm and a bottle of water

8-What do you wear to bed?

Nothing

9-What, if any, book are you reading now or last read?

La Vie Adulte, Virginie Mouznat ( Grown up Life)

10-What’s your advice to the “newcomer?”

Be persistent

11-Who or what is your inspiration/style icon?

My daily life is an inspiration

12-What is the best advice you ever received?

Never be afraid

13-In 3 words or less, describe the current state of fashion.

Dual, Paradoxical, Changing

14-If you were a retailer, would you wear your own designs or shop in your own store ? or where would you shop?

Yes and in London

15-If you won a $200,000,000 power ball (lottery), what is the first thing you would buy or do?

I would launch a new project, a short movie probably

16-If you could invite up to 4 people for dinner, who would they be…dead or alive?

Sharon Stone, Gainsborough, Jean Baptiste Mondino, Grace Coddington

17-What is your favorite movie /or movie star?

Kubricks’s A Clockwork Orange

18-What is the one thing you would change about yourself?

My anxiety

19-Whose opinion do you value most and why?

My first boss taught me everything, which has brought me to where I am today

20-What store or which designer do you most like to shop in or wear ?

Nike Town in NYC

21-What’s your take on magazines, books versus the internet?

I like both! Internet for the velocity of  information but magazines and books remain as absolute references with in addition the notion of possession and archive

22-Do you have a dream collaborator?

Pharrell

23-What is your crowning achievement thus far in your career?

Successfully progress every season; every season is a new challenge

24-What’s your music library like?

Drake – Nothing Was the Same

25-What and where is your favorite meal?

Double-Double Cheeseburger at the In-N-Out in LA

http://video.naij.com/yt=PaDWHxW3XTQ