How do you top a stellar Paris Fashion Week show starring Arca, Irina Shayk, Debra Shaw, Eva Herzigova, and Dominique Jackson that sent the internet into a frenzy? If you’re Casey Cadwallader, you head for the bottom of the Louvre and crank up the wind machines. Mugler’s creative director followed up his AW23 Mugler runway debut with a second runway extravaganza last month, diving deep [quite literally] into Thierry’s expansive archive and turning out an offering that looked to the depths of the ocean for inspiration.
For SS24, Cadwallader transformed his cast of Mugler muses – Paloma Elsesser, Jill Kortleve, Anok Yai, and Angela Bassett among them – into glittering deep sea creatures. Stepping away from anything slimy, long plumes of chiffon billowed out behind their wearer like tentacles, while dramatic second-skin looks seemingly crafted with crystal shards – which harked back to OG Mugler creations conjured up circa 1992 – bounced and oscillated down the catwalk with every step.
Now, in an exclusive short film, Dazed goes behind the scenes of Mugler SS24, as Cadwallader and his girls unpick and unpack the moments leading up to the show – from figuring out how to make the looks move like water, to how the garments make the models feel and what it’s like to walk for such an iconic house, resurrected for a new era under the watchful eye of the designer. Watch above, and click through the gallery below for a refresher on the collection itself.