What is sexy? Thierry Mugler had some ideas in his day, and they were so potent—all exaggerated hips and shoulders and whittled waists—they continue to shape our memories of the 1980s decades later.
Casey Cadwallader, who inherited this label a couple of years ago, took some time to warm up to Mugler’s kind of sexy—partly because he arrived at a moment when the house’s brand of brash wasn’t really trending. But no one could say he’s not operating at full throttle today. A good many of the looks on his fall runway weren’t even street legal. Wearing the body stockings—sheer save for black insets echoing Mugler’s famously dangerous curves—would require door-to-door transport. And probably a bodyguard. If anyone dares to wear these “naked” pieces, it will be Mugler’s celebrity crowd, performers on stage and on Instagram. Mesh dresses studded with a grid-like precision were somewhat more discreet and a shade more democratic for that reason.
Cadwallader adopted a similarly fierce attitude for his tailoring. Much of it was cut from leather, which is tricky to fit. He had an easier time finessing the stretch pieces. Jackets were shaped by integral corsets, or else they came with portrait necklines that framed the bust—there was no fear of the nipple here. He even went so far as to build garter belts into the waistbands of a couple of leather skirts. An off-the-shoulder, long-sleeve bodycon dress was a model of efficiency by comparison, and a whole lot more appealing because of it.
Cadwallader isn’t alone in his embrace of vampy provocation, though he does get points for being one of the few designers that sees sexy in all sizes. There “are 2s, 4s, 6s, 8s, 10s,” he said of his lineup. “You feel them turning on when they put on these clothes.” You’ve got to hand it to him for that.
