Paris, March 2nd 2022 — #BINUSINPARIS paid a visit to Musée des Arts Décoratifs.  

Situated in central Paris, MAD had been full of queues since morning even before its opening hours 11AM local time. 

The first exhibition we visited was the Thiery Mugler Couturissime. The exhibition is spread across the museum’s two floors featuring his numerous creations, ranging from dresses, collaboration pieces, filmography, to perfumes. More than 150 of the designer’s creations from 1973 to 2014 are showcased. People were made awed looking from one stage to the other and the whole creation was well organised thematically in such a way that it livens up the story and mood of each collection. Couturissime exhibition was first opened in Montreal back in 2019 and had stops in Netherlands and Munich. This time it lands in Paris and the story was divided into nine rooms like a classic opera. 

The opening room is devoted to Mugler’s 1990s collections Les Insectes and Chimère. Video backdrops of oceanic scenes are played with sounds of burbling water and chirping birds.  

Going further the room, comes the gallery of his Futuristic & Fembot Couture that was designed by Berlin Artis and set designer Philipp Fürhofer. It exhibits series of aerodynamic and robot style looks invented by Mugler. Quoting from the description pasted on the wall, for these looks he took inspiration from science fiction and comic book heroines from medieval armour and uniforms, from industrial design and futuristic vehicles. The designer collaborated with an aircraft bodywork specialist Jean-Pierre Delcros and a visual art Jean-Jacques Urcum in using novel techniques to create magnificent robot creatures seemingly poured into chrome bustier and Plexiglas catsuits. 

“In my work I’ve always tried to make people look stronger than they really are”

 

The exhibition then winds to the designer’s perfumes creation, Angel ending the segment of the exhibition

 

Going up to the second floor of the Thierry Mugler Couturissime, we saw numerous rare prints signed by artists and photographers including Jean-Paul Goude, Karl Lagerfeld, Guy Bourdin, Sarah Moon, Paolo Roversi, Herb Ritts, and Ellen von Unwert. One of the highlights is one side of the room showcasing the timeless collaboration with Helmut Newton. Thierry Mugler hired him to photograph the 1976’s ad campaign and since then they collaborated for years. The room is also dedicated to Mugler’s photographic achievements and his visual campaigns taken in exotic locations from Greenland to Sahara Desert featuring the glamour and beauty of his muses. 

The exhibition is closed with the theatrical production Macbeth Et Lady M presented by the Comédie-Française in 1985 at the Avignon Festival. Mugler’s original sketches displayed in life sized proportions on the wall along with a magnificent multimedia installation by Michel Lemieux in 4D art. The hologram shows a raving lady Macbeth. 

Mugler commented, “the fashion pieces — I cannot call them fashion; they are costumes for your everyday mise-en-scène and the everyday directing of yourself” 

“I couldn’t believe I had done all that,” – Thierry Mugler