Nature is healing: Mugler is back on the Paris Fashion Week schedule. For spring-summer 2024, Casey Cadwallader – inspired by his love of ocean life and its sci-fi creatures – transformed his runway into an aquarium. To create the effect of garments floating through water, large industry fans were situated along, and at the end of, the runway – with silks and chiffons trailing behind the models like some magnificent jellyfish moving through the ocean. Anok Yai nailed it in her ethereal finale walk. The look worn by Mariacarla Boscono was a black, wasp-waisted body plate made of a wet-look resin. Blazers were structured, square and cropped. On body suits, sequins combined with tinseled feathers – reminiscent of the most elaborate fish in the sea. Denim arrived in the shape of a standout jacket with a corseted-waist. Body-con dresses were present, none more striking that Amber Valletta’s cut-out atop of a corset dress. And while some garments were sheer, most were transparent, with extra pieces dangling from their uneven hemlines to create the illusion of seaweed. “I think I’m interested in the ideals and goals of performance and transformation – the idea of clothing that allows you to become a different version of yourself, or one of the many versions of yourself that you like to inhabit,” Cadwallader told the press. “I think that Mugler’s theatricality is quite deep actually – it’s not just about how it feels for the audience to watch a good show, but instead about how the garments shape and provoke and inspire the person wearing them. Who they become when in them. It’s really about the power of clothing, the impact of fashion.” Noted.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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