Few designers, even in haute couture, have left the kind of unmistakable stamp on fashion history that Thierry Mugler has. The French couturier and parfumier began his life in the world of ballet, and a dancer’s inspiration has followed him through a career defined by theatrical outfits, and costumes made for the stage. He launched his own fashion company in 1973, and spent the next few decades redefining what a woman could, and should, wear. Though he left fashion in 2002, he has never stopped creating, building his self-titled perfume line and a cosmetics offshoot, directing a Cirque du Soleil show, and becoming an artistic designer to Beyoncé.

Mugler’s iconic designs, wildly constructed and visually striking, appear time and time again, as fresh twenty years later as they were when he first introduced them. At the 2019 Grammy’s, Cardi B appeared in Mugler’s famous Venus dress, shipped from the archives in Paris. A couple months later, Kim Kardashian made a sparkling appearance at the Met Gala in a “dripping wet” Mugler dress, the first designed by the artist in 20 years. But these are just the tip of the couture crystal iceberg.

From September 30th, 2021 until April 24th, 2022, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris will present Thierry Mugler, Couturissime, an exhibition showcasing ready-to-wear and haute couture pieces from Mugler’s archives, stage costumes, photographs, and films from between 1973 and 2014. The exhibit is curated by Thierry-Maxime Loriot, and was originally shown at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2019.

“From the 1970’s until 2002 when Mugler turned the page on fashion, the creator established himself as one of the most daring and innovative couturiers of his time, creating silhouettes of remarkable potency often hailed as the embodiment of the 1980’s through the lens of fashion,” explains the exhibit’s press release. “In the 1990’s, Mugler galvanized the renaissance of haute couture through his bold collections and spectacular understanding of scenography, exemplified in his fashion shows and catwalks, which included the use of grandiose photography and the most iconic models of the day.”

The exhibition will be organized “in several acts like a classic opera,” creating stylistic atmospheres using animated projections, photographs, and music to contextualize the pieces. The opening aquatic theme “evokes an eccentric world of fantasy-inspired fauna in which excess abounds.” Next up are glittering, colorful pieces from Mugler’s 1997/1998 Insect and Chimères collection, inspired by real and fantastical wildlife like butterflies and sea nymphs. Science Fiction takes over next, with pieces from Mugler’s 1995 Maschinenmensch (machine-human) collection incorporating mechanical aesthetics into attire, motorcycle handlebar bras and radiator belts. The 1990s also bring us to Mugler’s rejection of hippie chic, the “Glamazon,” with her vinyl and latex chic urbanity.

Parts of the exhibition are also dedicated to Mugler’s work as a fashion photographer, as well as his many inspirations in that field, showing off numerous rare prints signed by artists and photography greats including Guy Bourdin, Jean-Paul Goude, Karl Lagerfeld, Dominique Issermann, David LaChapelle, Luigi & Iango, Sarah Moon, Pierre et Gilles, Paolo Roversi, Herb Ritts and Ellen von Unwerth.

Thierry Mugler, Couturissime provides a very special opportunity to look at the career in total of one of fashion’s greatest designers. With designs both futuristic and elegant, Mugler provides a way to review the way our visions of ourselves move fashion throughout the ages, allowing us to manifest not as who we are, but as who we could be.