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Balenciaga has a new marketing campaign, and it is comprised of some of your favorite celebrities. That’s right Isabelle Huppert, Kim Kardashian, and Justin Bieber, just to name a few.

Kim K, who has long been associated with Balmain, has more recently been connected Balenciaga and its creative director Demna Gvasalia. Demna has designed several garments for Kim K for special events.

All the celebrities were photographed by Australian artist and photographer Stef Mitchell in surroundings they were very comfortable in. Kardashian at her house in Calabasas, Huppert in her Parisian apartment. Model Tommy Blue was also pictured at home, while his colleague Marie-Agnès Diene picked her own artist studio, and Justin Bieber his favorite Los Angeles studio.

All the celebs were attired in the latest garments and accessories from Balenciaga. All the garment and items in the campaign are available online on the label’s e-shop. Images from the campaign will be strategically released throughout the season.

Though some fashion brands that have returned to runway shows and in-person presentations for global fashion weeks, many fashion brands are still using digital platforms to present their fashion collections. Due to COVID-19 Delta and Omicon variants, several major fashion houses have yet again cancelled their runway shows and presentations in favor of digital presentations. Some major fashion brands have even moved their fashion show sand presentations completely off the fashion calendar.

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Major brands abandon traditional fashion calendar

In a surprise last-minute announcement, Versace has opted out of a runway presentation men’s collection during men’s fashion week in favor of a digital presentation. Versace has also decided to forego a co-ed fashion show this season.

In late January Tom Ford announced that his February 16^th show during New York Fashion Week (NYFW) would not take place due to a breakout of COVID-19 infections at his brand’s factories and studios. No rescheduled date has been announced. Thom Browne has also cancelled his fashion show during NYFW and will present his collection in New York City on April 29 prior to the Met Gala.

Gucci has moved it dual men’s and women’s fashion shows from Milan Fashion Week to an unannounced European location on May 16, while Max Mara has scheduled its Cruise show for June 28 in Lisbon, Portugal. And on April 29, Emilio Pucci will unveil its first capsule collection of its new creative director, Camille Miceli, in Capri.

Image courtesy of stylecaster.com

Goodbye Thierry

Thierry Mugler has passed away. On January 23, the iconic French fashion designer died of natural causes.

Known for his dominatrix, wasp-waisted, broad-shouldered, body-conscious creations, Mugler helped usher in the 1980s power dressing for women. Mugler’s highly choreographed fashion shows were on the level of a Hollywood extravaganza, with super models, famous actors, drag artists, music artists, and occasional porn stars.

Mugler’s fashion designs often bordered on a combination of the erotic and grotesque, inspired by Mugler’s fascination with science fiction novels and Detroit industrialism and the work of Hollywood costume designers such as Adrian and Edith Head. Often criticized by fashion critics for his hypersexualized portrayal of women, Mugler served as an inspiration for Alexander McQueen, Jeremy Scott, and other fashion designers of that ilk. And many celebrities and media personalities flocked to his collections—Lady Gaga, Madonna, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Ivana Trump, and Demi Moore.

I never dreamed of being a fashion designer. I wanted to be a director,” Mr. Mugler said in a 2019 interview with T, the New York Times style magazine. “But fashion happened to be a good tool. It was a means of communicating.”

Mugler started his career as a ballet dancer in Strasbourg, France and later moved to Paris. In Paris Mugler found more success in fashion than on ballet stages. Mugler started making his own clothes and began freelancing at various fashion houses in Paris, Milan, and London.

“I remember I had an old army coat which trailed on the ground and a pair of trousers, dyed in all the colors of the rainbow,” he told Britain’s Independent newspaper. “I would also wear a huge plastic orchid in my lapel and had an acid-green jacket with royal blue buttons in the form of stars.”

Mugler launched his first line, Café de Paris, in 1973. In 1974 he launched the House of Thierry Mugler.

For his label’s 20th anniversary, he organized a star-studded fashion show at the Cirque d’Hiver in Paris, which featured models such as Naomi Campbell and Jerry Hall as well as actresses like Tippi Hedren, whose satin dress was decorated with ravenlike feathers in homage to her movie “The Birds.” Socialite Patty Hearst performed a striptease, and the show ended with confetti and a performance by soul singer James Brown.

“I didn’t feel it at the time, but soon after the show, I realized it was the end of the era,” Mr. Mugler told T magazine. “Afterward, fashion became a branding, marketing thing. The model agencies started controlling the world, and it all became cheesy to me.”

Mugler sold his brand to Clarins in 1997, leaving the fashion house five years later. Mugler’s fragrance Angel continues to be one of the top fragrances. Mugler was 73 years old at the time of his death.

—William S. Gooch