Thierry Mugler

Thierry Mugler founded his Paris house in 1973. He grew up in Strasbourg and trained as a ballet dancer with the Opéra national du Rhin, which gave him an understanding of the body in motion, of posture, proportion and the power of a silhouette on a stage, that ran through everything he made. The Mugler silhouette is immediately recognisable: broad shoulders, a cinched waist, dramatically flared hips - an exaggerated hourglass that treated the body as something to be sculpted rather than simply dressed. His references ranged across science fiction, Old Hollywood glamour, fetishism, entomology and architecture, and he combined them without apology into clothing that operated as much in the register of performance and costume as in conventional fashion. His runway shows were productions closer to rock concerts than presentations, and his materials were equally experimental: PVC, metal, leather and precisely engineered fabrications. He dressed David Bowie, Diana Ross, George Michael and Naomi Campbell, and his influence is visible in the work of designers including Alexander McQueen and Daniel Roseberry. The pieces he produced across the 1980s and 1990s are now recognised as some of the most important of their era.