ON the evening of March 2 in Paris, people were not quite ready to let go of their sentimental baggage regarding so-called genius talent. Too much self-questioning may have been involved, for one thing. Anyway, it was hard to get any perspective. That morning newspapers carried the story of John Galliano’s dismissal from Dior. At 9:30 p.m., an audience of mostly journalists and fashion professionals gathered to see the Mugler show and its headliner, Lady Gaga.
During the wait, in a gymnasium that had been outfitted with a raised platform set with many columns, like a Roman market, the Courtin-Clarins sisters, whose family owns Mugler and who were highly visible at the shows this season — Claire Courtin-Clarins, 23, in a white Mugler jacket with white fox sleeves — stopped by Anna Wintour’s seat to say hello. Standing in their high heels, with much radiant blond hair, they resembled nervous schoolgirls before the Vogue chief, who told them they looked lovely. With that, they went back to their seats. The show began.
Although the staging and lighting obscured the clothes, and Lady Gaga’s appearance, along with her hit single “Born This Way,” supplied the show with most of its kick, you could make out that some of the designs were quite good, in part because they had discarded the ephemera of the label’s founder, Thierry Mugler. They were just streamlined clothes in crisp Japanese fabrics. Afterward, Lady Gaga came out on the runway with her friend Nicola Formichetti, a popular stylist who is the label’s creative director, and a second man, Sébastien Peigné. Amanda Brooks, the fashion director of Barneys New York, remembered looking at Mr. Peigné through the gloom and thinking, “Who’s that guy?”
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