Thierry Mugler : Couturissime

March 2 - September 8, 2019

Initiated and produced by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), in collaboration with the House of MUGLER and Clarins Group, this retrospective showcases the singular imagination of the French designer that revolutionized fashion and haute couture.

Conceived as an opera in six acts, the exhibition revisits MUGLER’s iconic creations and collaborations in spectacular settings.

Thierry Mugler: Couturissime features some 150 outfits – most restored and exhibited for the first time – produced between 1977 and 2014, in addition to accessories, theatre costumes, videos, film clips, videos, archives and unpublished sketches. It also presents a hundred rare prints by the greatest fashion photographers and artists, including Lillian Bassman, Guy Bourdin, Jean-Paul Goude, Karl Lagerfeld, Paolo Roversi, Dominique Issermann, David LaChapelle, Luigi & Iango, Alix Malka, Max Abadian, Steven Meisel, Mert & Marcus, Sarah Moon, Pierre et Gilles, Paolo Roversi, Herb Ritts, and Ellen von Unwerth.

An entire gallery is dedicated to the collaboration between the couturier and photographer Helmut Newton. The exhibition also features a rotation of 16 of the costumes designed by MUGLER for La Tragédie de Macbeth, shown here for the first time since the 1985 Comédie-Française production at the Festival d'Avignon.

I have often been offered to exhibit my work, but the idea of looking backward has never interested me. Although the MMFA with Nathalie Bondil and Thierry-Maxime Loriot were the right people, with the right vision. There is no future without a past, so I hope this exhibition will open up a new and inspiring creative future for the audience!