True to her reputation as a style chameleon, Cardi B walked up to Mugler’s show at Paris Fashion Week with dramatic V-shaped black bangs, in stark contrast to her flowing copper-blond locks the day before at Rabanne.
The reason quickly became clear, as model Colin Jones opened the show in an identical hairpiece — the work of Chinese hair artist Zhou Xue Ming. The collection too was a 180-degree turn for artistic director Casey Cadwallader.
The wigs were the ideal counterpoint for his sharply tailored suits and undulating dresses inspired by flowers. After seven years at Mugler, the designer felt the house’s 50th anniversary was a good moment to dig deeper into the archives. “It’s a real refresh,” he said backstage.
But these were not your grandmother’s florals. Cadwallader’s starting point, ostensibly, was a 1982 collection of brightly hued petal dresses, but he spun it through his dark lens by tapping into the geometry at the heart of the blooms.
That hidden structure informed the sinuous necklines on graphic jackets fastened with oversize pearls, and the sculptural heels on towering platform shoes. “It’s much more feminine; at the same time, it’s hard,” he noted of the corset-inspired constructions, all power shoulders and jutting hips.
Images of flowers sliced in half inspired a duo of dresses in millefeuille layers of organza dyed in a dégradé of colors. Curvy black dresses with petal-shaped skirts contrasted with looser styles in shimmering jacquard velvet with handpainted floral motifs.
In a nod to the heavy showers that have lashed Paris since the start of the week, Cadwallader sent out a stunning concept dress consisting of heavy Baccarat crystal drops suspended on clear netting, topped with a transparent PVC rain slicker.
The designer grew green fingers last spring after buying a country home in Fontainebleau, a stone’s throw from Paris.
“I’ve been doing a lot of yard work, and ripping out flowers, planting new flowers,” he said. “And really, by doing that, my ideas got stronger. I was able to get out of the daily matrix of questions and people’s needs, and instead, just get into my head a little bit.”
With the new Mugler documentary “Inside the Dream” poised to hit Prime Video and other global platforms, his work is about to reach a larger audience. This season, it seems everything’s coming up roses.