FASHION Magazine

Strategic cut-outs, thigh-high slits and body-con shapes: Sébastien Peigné and Nicola Formichetti of Mugler are bringing sexy back.

Reviving Mugler is a monster task. After designer Thierry Mugler took his final runway bow at his couture show in July 2000, this kinky house of cool (remember Demi Moore’s bondage-style dress in 1993’s Indecent Proposal?) started flatlining. Ten years later, the resuscitation began. In 2010, following months of speculation, Nicola Formichetti (Lady Gaga’s stylist) was tapped to lead the revival of the French house known for its over-the-top theatricality and sex appeal. Besides outfitting Mother Monster, this 34-year-old half-Italian, half-Japanese, techno-savvy superstar is also the fashion director for Vogue Hommes Japan and global retailer Uniqlo. His debut Mugler womenswear show during Fall 2011 Paris Fashion Week had the twitterverse buzzing about its latex-dipped leggings, body-stocking dresses and the catwalk pièce de résistance: Gaga, smoking in every sense of the word.

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Fashion show audiences are a mix of customers and the media, and we each tend to read what comes down the runway differently. I am looking for what is new. Customers are looking for that and more. They want to know that the expensive piece they bought last season isn’t going to look dated. So when I told a young fashion enthusiast after the Mugler show that the collection was full of peplums, she practically did a cartwheel. “I can still wear them?” she beamed. Uh huh. And all the rest of us who haven’t bought one yet might want to join in the fun. Of course we probably won’t go quite as far as the undulating peplums at Mugler. In white with fox sleeves and downy helmets, the overall effect was a bird in flight.

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Paris feels like the Amazing Race, what with a crammed show schedule, road detours, and invitations that go poof in the night. But what’s Paris without a little drama, oui?

The important thing is that strong themes are already emerging. One is the trend of opulence everyday—like a shimmery brocade skirt with a wool crewneck sweater, as we saw at Marco Zanini’s collection for Rochas. The same idea surfaced at Barbara Bui where a gold foil wrap was worn with navy pants. Don’t save your precious items for special occasions, designers seem to be saying. It’s the fashion equivalent of using your good silver with your everyday china. Do try this one at home.

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If last night’s cocktail party at The Room in Toronto was all about the Mugler woman, the party’s many attendees showed just how diverse that woman can be. At one end of the spectrum was the usual mix of the city’s most fashionable ladies: Model Yasmin Warsame in exaggerated shoulders and a floor-length skirt, the Bay’s Sarah Kosloff in a velvet and shimmering silver vintage duo (the whole outfit bought for a cool $45), and our own Bernadette Morra in a black metallic Herman-Sellers-Gough jacket with a platinum-tipped fox collar. At the other, two transgendered attendees respectively in lace and coned leather, looking every bit Mother Monster as Gaga herself.

Though the annual CFDA Awards are meant to honour top-tier American designers, there’s no debate over who was the focus of last night’s ceremony. Everyone was Gaga for the Lady, with all eyes on her green wig, sky-high boots and custom Mugler spiked thong. Honoured with the night’s Fashion Icon Award (past recipients include Kate Moss, Iman and Nicole Kidman), Gaga turned fire (the good kind) on the night with her lighthearted antics and her unabashed speech. Upon her acceptance, Gaga shared that when she got news of her award from Anna Wintour, she confused the editor in chief of Vogue with a friend and responded with a “Yes, bitch. We did it!”

Want the rest of the details? Get the skinny on last night’s event in six points or less!

The Wall Street Journal turns the tables on Anna Wintour, who is covering the upcoming issue, as snapped by Vogue fave Mario Testino. [Fashion Gone Rogue]