Thursday PFW: Chloé and Mugler

On a day of biblical deluge in Paris, designers from two houses with radically different aesthetics (the romantic Chloé and the fierce Mugler) wrestled, both successfully, over how to respect a brand's codes while still updating them.

Chloé: sensual elegance

It's always nice to see a designer respect a brand's DNA, in this case Chloé, where its Indian designer Chemena Kamali showed chic hippie romanticism with lots of Parisian panache.

Inviting her guests to the outskirts of Paris to see Chloé spring/summer 2025, Kamali's second collection for the house.

Presented inside the Paris tennis court, an indoor stadium normally flooded with light, but today obscured by black skies and heavy rain. In stark contrast to the collection, where half of the floral fabrics looked sun-faded.

A hyper feminine collection featuring multiple lace guipures seen on harem pants with loose blouses; lace-embellished leotards and swimsuits; ruffled capri pants and ruffled bras.

Although Chemena's favorite garment was medieval-style bloomers with light lace, guipure or thick silk. They are often juxtaposed with big, bold biker jackets or parkas, finished with stand-up collars and large pockets. In a season of power shoulders, Chloé had some of the broadest ones.

Another key wardrobe item, the super high waisted Radical Chic flared jeans. Throughout, materials were opulent (silk charms and Habotai silks) but used subtly. The rose and peony prints were reworked from an original hand-painted design from 1977 found in the house's archives.

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“Chloé is an eternal state of mind guided by instinct and optimism. What matters to me is the intuition that guides this very personal, intimate and sensual way of dressing. It’s about feeling,” Kamali argued in his show notes.

It would certainly take a fit figure to wear much of this wardrobe, especially as a third of the passages suggested lingerie. Although for the less tall, Kamali provided some excellent Maxime platform wedges, finished in dash. Surely she also knows how to take advantage of the Chloé accessories studio, wearing wonderful golden belts with the brand's name in metallic letters; seashell-encrusted bags; and raffia bags. Everything looks very modern.

However, there were definitely too many frou frou, billowing, semi-sheer floral dresses cut in a flamenco style, to make the atmosphere too kitschy. Like the cloying soundtrack, which begins and ends with screaming Cocteau Twins lorelei.

That said, it felt like a successful show, with the designer earning the biggest applause so far this Paris season.

Chloé is the largest brand in the fashion division of luxury conglomerate Richemont, which also includes Alaïa and Dunhill. After several years of stagnation, Richemont's fashion brands suddenly began to gain traction. Alaïa presented a successful collection in New York two weeks ago, the first show inside the Guggenheim Museum, while Dunhill designer Simon Holloway has injected new life into that London house.

And today, Chemenda Kamali's Chloé suddenly seemed relevant again.

Mugler celebrates its 50th anniversary at the Trianon

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The Mugler house celebrated its 50th anniversary with an intimate show inside the upper foyer of Le Trianon, a dingy ballroom in Pigalle.

Organized in the shadow of the Moulin Rouge, the collection seemed like a tribute to many of Thierry Mugler's greatest hits, although it was no worse for that.

Since being appointed creative director of the house, American designer Casey Cadwallader has given new life to a brand that had greatly declined following Mugler's retirement.

Now, with the help of the recent and remarkably successful Mugler retrospective at the Louvre Museum of Decorative Arts, it's a brand with momentum.

Guests arrived at this show in pouring rain, led by Cardi B and a large group of her security. The star wore a shiny black crepe suit with a cinched waist, sharp shoulders, padded hips and cut-out lapels. For a better look at Cardi's substantial cleavage.

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Like the cast, she sported a pageboy hair extension with V-shaped bangs, taking her front-row seat amid a blaze of paparazzi flashes.

The first three looks were all V-shaped vixen power suits, recalling Mugler's authoritarian moment, where he photographed his supermodels atop Stalin-era Soviet Gothic skyscrapers in Moscow. Though again, with enough twist in the lapels and shape to make it all fresh.

We move on to the technology-meets-nature moment of the house in the mid-nineties, when Mugler began creating haute couture. Casey inventing corsetry in the shape of leaves or shiny asymmetrical and deconstructed bodices.

A collaboration with Baccarat led to a trio of dresses with drops and showers of rhinestones in eye-catching cocktails. Although the crux of the matter was Casey's strict, precise and fierce Mugler suit, a look that still manages to look revolutionary and subversive. Empowering and at the same time seductive.

In a word, a Mugler half century duly celebrated by a designer who seems very much in tune with the founder's codes.