Amidst the Lady Gaga-fueled hype of the last few days, stylist Nicola Formichetti's debut womenswear collection for Mugler will be presented today in Paris, starring Gaga herself and streamed live on the Mugler Facebook page at 3 p.m. EST.
Having outfitted Gaga in elements of the collection for recent appearances, Formichetti has already offered a bit of a sneak peek as to the aesthetic for his debut, "but the collection is much, much more wearable and more luxury-based, rather than [stage] wear," he said in a recent interview with WWD.
Nevertheless, this is Mugler—an icon in the '80s for futuristic theatrics in power dressing—and Formichetti has kept "all the DNA of Mugler" at the heart of the fall 2011 line. Along with his Balenciaga veteran design director Sébastien Peigné, Formichetti created "supertight" silhouettes from mini to calf-length, strong shoulders, corsets, animalistic themes in "aggressive patterns" and raccoon fur, and suits and dresses inspired by the X-ray skeleton face tattoos and body art of his menswear muse and model, Rick Genest.
Such forward-thinking methods of design extend to, or perhaps come from, Formichetti's self-professed "addiction" to the community and instant gratification of social media, which, he told WWD, he got from Gaga. "Now you get to talk to and listen to your followers. I get inspired from this all the time," said Formichetti. "You feel like you're designing it together."
No doubt, after today's spectacle across the channels of social media, he'll have a lot more followers in the fold.
