Is the showgirl to 2025 what the cowboy was to last year?
With fashion closely tracking album releases, Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” promises to unleash a tidal wave of rhinestones on the runways.
For his first show as creative director of Mugler, Miguel Castro Freitas got in front of the trend with a collection he titled “Stardust Aphrodite.”
Elizabeth Berkley, star of the camp classic “Showgirls,” was among the guests at the event staged in an underground parking garage in Paris. So was Pamela Anderson, who donned full Las Vegas regalia for her turn as a retiring dancer in “The Last Showgirl.”
After all, founder Thierry Mugler was a pioneer in blending fashion with entertainment, culminating with his cabaret revue “Mugler Follies.”
In the runup to Freitas’ debut, the brand released a capsule collection of archival looks, and the designer could have quoted the vintage Mugler showstoppers that have become popular red carpet outfits for celebrities like Cardi B and Kim Kardashian.
Instead, he leaned into the house’s tailoring heritage. His hourglass silhouettes in sober shades of camel and beige evoked Mugler’s “Insects” collection, but also Martin Margiela’s spins on dressmakers’ mannequins.
Vinyl skirts and dress pants came with low, padded waistbands, while nude bodystockings underpinned many of the looks.
Freitas, who like Mugler loves the golden age of Hollywood, sprinkled in touches of camp glamour with items like the “Too Funky” feather headdress worn by Linda Evangelista, and a nude dress with a Ginger Rogers-style ostrich feather skirt.
What was missing was the founder’s reverence for the female form, and the hedonist joy of the brand’s previous creative director, Casey Cadwallader.
Mugler was often criticized for holding women to unrealistic standards, but his designs were never vulgar. Freitas’ stabs at edgy glamour, like the pert nipples poking through fringe tops, were a reminder that behind every fantasy lurks a darker side. Even showgirls get the blues.
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