Tonight in the hangarlike Halle Freyssinet, the Mugler show took as its starting point the bygone days of air travel. The house's creative director, Nicola Formichetti, has a personal interest in the subject, as his mother was once an air hostess, frequently crossing the globe; it was "an idea of time travel, in style," he said before the presentation. The sixties were the fertile starting point, but there was also a debt to the fifties and nineties in what followed. Formichetti gave a nod to the futurism of Oscar Niemeyer's architecture—especially in the curvilinear silhouettes of the opening looks, with a pale color like poured concrete or metal—without being metallic or robotic.
In fact there was very little in the way of man-made, futuristic, artificial fibers in this collection—something that has become a signature during this new era. Instead there was an idea of the future viewed from the past here, especially with the expert fabric choice by the womenswear designer Sébastien Peigné. The most successful looks used fabric from the suppliers Crevacuore, known for their luxurious mid-century style, shown in the peach crushed bouclé or the gradations of gray cashmere in the opening. Peigné's past working at Balenciaga under Nicolas Ghesquière was evident here, especially with a further stripped-back, aerodynamic spin on shapes and volumes that had a nod to the Cristobal archives. Yet Peigné proved he had something distinctly his own in the particular tailoring of the skirtsuit looks in the show.
Where things seemed to be on a less firm footing was in the dresses and the more self-consciously futuristic pieces, which displayed something of an overly experimental approach by the designer when the template seemed already nicely set. The last looks of the show displayed discipline once more—the monastic air of an earthbound handmaiden this time, as opposed to the airborne one at the beginning. She seemed the darker and less idealistic sister. If only they had come together sooner.
