Under the tutelage of an in-house "nose," David Koma has been in intensive training to bring his nostrils up to speed with the fragrance side of Mugler's business. "It's incredible, very interesting, and part of the big project to bring both sides of the house together," Koma said of his olfactory crash course after today's show.
Apparel-wise, Koma is benefiting from his time at Mugler, too. It's not that he needs to learn a great deal; his recipe for rigorous (but not severe) body con has been long developed. The advantage is that chez Mugler, exposed to neither the hints of scrappiness in production nor the incongruity of context that sometimes compromises his clothes' impact in London, that recipe can be savored to best effect. And while hot, (mostly) short, unabashedly sexy dresses do not chime with the spirit of our age—perhaps only Versace is knocking them out as dedicatedly as Koma—it means that, counterintuitively, his métier represents something of a niche.
Today Koma took circuitry, the innards of whatever device you are using to read this now, as his decorative theme. Perhaps the finely constructed but gaudily bonded gold-coated leather and white silk/wool pieces were a tad de trop, but for the most part it was a riff gently played. His opener of chip and conductor silk panels on wool, black on black, hummed gently. The one-shoulder, wire-strap dress in leather solder-board green didn't scream Tron, even if, when asked if the film had influenced him, Koma confessed, "a bit." The movement of one knit dress (black, solid-bodied but semi-sheer-gridded at the skirt and arms) was strikingly sinuous, but most all of these pieces—including the tightly tailored leather topcoats—had a fierce sexiness to them. This collection was considerably more Koma than Mugler. But, as the man himself is out of the game and his current replacement has his own, not entirely incompatible point of view to express, it makes sense to let him express it.
