Mugler Spring 2027

Mugler Spring 2027 was interested in the point where attraction becomes instinct. Miguel Castro Freitas opened the third chapter of his “Naturalia X” trilogy with a trailer featuring mating snails spliced with footage of two people kissing, setting the tone for a collection that returned to the flora and fauna running through founder Manfred Thierry Mugler’s work. If Mugler understood anything, it was that beauty could be both seductive and slightly dangerous. Freitas revisited that idea through a feather tunic shaped like a butterfly wing, croc-embossed leather trousers and a spiderweb dress recalling the legendary “Les Insectes” haute couture collection from 1997. “It’s looking into the feral aspect of nature versus the ethereal aspect of nature,” he said backstage, “the fragility versus the danger.”

Since taking over the house, Freitas has steadily pushed Mugler towards a harder, more contemporary form of glamour. Sculptural tailoring in gleaming Mikado silk brought a futuristic polish, while faux-fur trousers and a snakeskin hourglass dress with deliberately cheeky bum cleavage brought the collection back down to something more primal. The couture-level pieces pushed the idea further: a shaggy hair tunic carried a flame-coloured motif, latex fringe swept dramatically from evening gowns, and moulded leather dresses appeared to sprout strange flowers from the body. Nothing was particularly interested in behaving itself. The clothes were sensual, occasionally grotesque and knowingly theatrical, but the underlying Mugler language remained clear: the body is the starting point, and exaggeration is part of the architecture.

The atmosphere was as carefully constructed as the clothes. Models moved through an immersive video installation by Casper Sejersen to an ear-splitting soundtrack by Teho Teardo, including a Björk track, while Björk herself wore a custom look from the collection for a DJ performance in Poland that same day. Then came the evening's most provocative image: performance artist Alexis Stone appeared in full prosthetic makeup as Manfred Thierry Mugler, seated beside the late designer's husband, Krzysztof Leon Dziemaszkiewicz. Freitas secured his blessing before staging the tribute, but the stunt inevitably became a talking point, with the online reaction divided. That is perhaps the risk of working with Mugler's mythology: the spectacle can become louder than the clothes. Spring 2027, however, had enough feral beauty of its own to survive without the provocation.