Science Fiction Meets Fashion Fact
Review of Mugler Spring 2025 Fashion Show
By Mark Wittmer
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
Bold. Insectoid. Angular. Alien.
Spring 2025 sees Mugler creative director Casey Cadwallader continue to execute an impressive balancing act between the high sci-fi fantasy of the Mugler couture archive and a grounded understanding of contemporary luxury.
The concise collection drops some of the emphasis on dramatically taking up space that has characterized recent collections in favor of a focus on structural tailoring and tighter silhouettes that showcase beautiful new examples of craftsmanship from the atelier – and are nonetheless still big on that signature Mugler drama and edge. Drawing on the eponymous icon’s penchant for insectoid and alien shapes, chitinous tailored jackets feature sinuous cutouts, while minidresses are adorned with intricately gathered and layered gradient silks that move like some deep sea creature. An expansive transparent coat worn over a body-hugging crystalline net embodies an exquisite synthesis of organic form, human craft, and cyborgian imagination. Hand-painted dresses introduce an artfully chaotic perspective on this idea of the organic, while grid-like embroideries balance them out with a sense of the scientific or mathematical.
A few utilitarian outerwear pieces in olive drab or denim ground this angular interplay in a more everyday wearable option. These pieces also form some of the key menswear (or really gender-neutral) offerings, which the brand successfully launched for this past Pre-Fall season.
THE DIRECTION
THE WRAP UP
Cadwallader’s Mugler is a lesson in balancing brand heritage with a personal design point of view and a recognition of the need to guide fashion past into the future. With imaginative applications of craft and clever structural considerations, Mugler creates a fashion vision that is at once alien and surprisingly accessible – at least for those who are bold enough.
