Exclusive interview with Casey Cadwallader, Mugler&rsquo; creative director and Anna Sofia Johansson, Creative advisor at H&amp;M about Mugler as H&amp;M designer collaboration for this year.

Questions to Mugler, Casey Cadwallader

What makes this collaboration collection so special for you, how is it different from Mugler collection?
It was a really amazing to be asked to work on this project with H&amp;M. It felt like a big moment, both for me as a designer, and for the house of Mugler. I think everyone in fashion is aware of the H&amp;M designer collaborations &ndash; they are just really iconic. So actually, when starting work on the collection, I spent a lot of time reflecting back on my own memories of those collaborations, like the one Alber Elbaz did, which was so true to Lanvin, in terms of the design of the pieces, and the ones with Versace and Margiela, which I actually bought pieces from at the time, and which, again, were really about offering people signature pieces. I drew a lot of inspiration from that idea. So I was adamant that this had to be true Mugler &ndash; nothing compromised or watered down. I wanted it to be a really celebration of the house, and of our classics. Of course, we have reworked and tweaked pieces to ensure they can be created at an affordable price-point &ndash; but as a whole I&rsquo;m so proud of how the collection has turned out. It feels very authentic to the house.

What are your own favorite pieces from the collection, both from archive and new pieces, and what do you think would have been Manfred Thierry Mugler&rsquo;s favorite pieces?
I find it impossible to choose favourite pieces. As I said, there are so many great Mugler signatures in the collection &ndash; the catsuits, the dresses, the denim, some amazing architectural jewellery, all of those would be in my top five. And on top of that, there are amazing accessories like tights and gloves. I love the breadth of the collection, across men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s &ndash; it really offers people a lot of choice. And it feels truly elevated &ndash; you see that in the details, the star embellishments, the special fastenings, the sparkles, the quality of the leathers. They are all my favourites! As you say, alongside the contemporary pieces, there is a mix of archive pieces, from the 80s and 90s, including dresses, tailoring and some amazing jewellery. It was a nice way of honouring the legacy of Thierry Mugler, and also a great way to acknowledge the huge enthusiasm for 80s and 90s fashion and vintage amongst young people at the moment. When curating the selection, I spent time thinking about what people would really covet, and what would really encapsulate the heritage of the brand. I knew, for example, that I wanted the 80s black velvet dress, because the original vintage version has had its own new modern life recently, having been worn by so many young icons, whether in shows or the red carpet. And I love the skirt suit also, because its punk but also feminine, and it encapsulates the dualities of Mugler &ndash; how it could be very considered and cerebral and couture, and then also, on another a side, quite dirty and daring &ndash; and I love those juxtapositions. All the archive pieces show the richness of the house, but also my own journey with Mugler &ndash; the starting points and references that have inspired the house today. I hope Thierry would have appreciated the whole selection.

The collection looks at the 80&rsquo;s and 90&rsquo;s period. Why was it so special for the Mugler fashion house and why do you think the younger generation is now so fascinated with this time?
Yes, as I said above, there is a huge enthusiasm amongst young people for those eras &ndash; and Thierry Mugler is certainly a part of that. It&rsquo;s all just in the air at the moment. I think young people are intrigued by the fashion from that time, and excited by the amazing glamour and theatricality of the runways of that era, particularly Mugler. I think there is a sense of freedom, and beauty to that era that young people identify with. The corseted dress, that we have included in the archive remakes section of the collection is a great symbol of the 90s, in my mind. It&rsquo;s incredibly glamorous but somehow edgy and almost slightly grungy at the same time. Naturally, that epoch of Mugler has had an influence on me as a designer, as I am someone who enjoys working with an archive and looking at the past &ndash; however I wouldn&rsquo;t say that the H&amp;M collection is just 80s and 90s. There are many very contemporary pieces that come from the recent history of the house, and that feel very modern. I think it&rsquo;s a blend, of then, and of now &ndash; that&rsquo;s always how I like to work as a designer.

Mugler fashion house has always been working with musicians and interested in music. What could be the theme songs for the women&rsquo;s and men&rsquo;s collections if you had to choose?
I&rsquo;ve been honoured and privileged to work with so many great musicians over my time at Mugler. And as you say, music is really key to the DNA of the house. If I were to pick a song as a soundtrack to the collection, it would of course be &lsquo;Music Sounds Better With You&rsquo;, which features in the campaign film for the collection. The original is by Stardust, and is from 1998, and we remade it with Eartheater, Shygirl, Amaarae and Arca. It was amazing working with such talented musicians, and it&rsquo;s song I&rsquo;ve always loved &ndash; to me it&rsquo;s about community, about friendship and fun, about how music is brought to life by who you are with, who you surround yourself with. I wanted the film to feel super lively, super dynamic, a little eccentric &ndash; very Mugler. I see it all as a homage to the house&rsquo;s cultural relevance, in the world of dance, music, performance, club culture, and to the many distinct characters that have always been welcomed by the house of Mugler. It&rsquo;s an amazing mix and highlights that Mugler is for everyone. I&rsquo;ve been listening to the track non-stop and it was a really great moment when it was performed at the launch event for the collection.

This collection is very creative and inspiring. What was your inspiration behind it and what is the main message to the Mugler and H&amp;M customer?
The main inspiration was to create something celebratory &ndash; something that felt like true Mugler. I think the message is about freedom and joy &ndash; I wanted the collection to be super broad, and super open so it could be worn and styled in so many different ways and enjoyed by a wide range of people. I really can&rsquo;t wait to see how people make it their own.

Why did you choose Mugler as H&amp;M designer collaboration for this year, how was working and collaborating with Mugler&rsquo; creative director Casey Cadwallader?
Mugler just felt totally right for now. It&rsquo;s a house that has been on our wish-list for a while, as all of us at H&amp;M have been really impressed with what Casey has created with his reinvigoration of the house. We have also been fascinated by the current global enthusiasm for 80s and 90s icons, and the way young people are looking to the past for inspiration. The house&rsquo;s founder Thierry Mugler is obviously a big part of that. He is key to the flamboyance and excitement of that period &ndash; he set the agenda, just as Casey is doing now, by reinterpreting the house and its codes for a fresh generation. Casey has such a respect for the legacy of the brand, and for all that Mr Mugler stood for &ndash; inclusivity, gender-fluidity, empowerment, body positivity and sexiness. He has made young people adore both his vision for the house, and also the history of the house &ndash; which is an amazing thing to achieve. And yet he isn&rsquo;t overwhelmed by the past &ndash; he takes elements he likes and he totally twists them and makes them modern. And by doing that he&rsquo;s made Mugler a totally recognisable house. You can immediately identify a contemporary Mugler piece - the catsuits, the cut-outs, the spiralling jeans, the impeccable tailoring &ndash; and that&rsquo;s a very hard thing to achieve as a designer. I think we couldn&rsquo;t have wished to work with a better person for this moment.

What is unique and special in this collaboration?
Mugler and Casey have been incredibly generous with many of their key pieces &ndash; the collection really is a special curated range of classics and icons. And that&rsquo;s always what we as H&amp;M want to get &ndash; because our customers are so keen to get a piece of fashion history. That&rsquo;s exactly what Casey has offered. From the start, he was keen to bring together the pieces that have really defined Mugler today &ndash; the mini dresses, the catsuits with mesh panels. There are just so many iconic pieces within the range &ndash; I think that makes it really special.
What are your favorite pieces from the collection and what you would you suggest others to try on from this collaboration?
Personally, I love the leather pieces, like the petrol green long leather coat &ndash; you&rsquo;d treasure that forever. And I love the denim spiral jeans, just because they really are a Casey signature &ndash; something he invented. And they are so beautifully made and meticulous when it comes to shape and angle &ndash; you can tell he studied architecture as they totally enhance and empower the body, lifting, shaping and making it super sculptural. Talking of architecture, the jewellery is also very special and very sculptural &ndash; really bold and unapologetic. For the archive pieces, the great acid green shirt, that was worn by Bowie, is amazing. And I am obsessed with the archive skirt suit, which is also remake, I think it&rsquo;s just fantastic, especially with the little piercing buttons. It&rsquo;s a very special piece.

With this collection you are looking back at the 80&rsquo;s and 90&rsquo;s fashion era and Mugler archive pieces. What was so special about these years, what part of it would you like to deliver to H&amp;M customer all over the world?
I think, as Casey says, there is something about the freedom and playfulness of those years that feels really special, especially to young people. We are truly honoured to be able to include archive remakes within the collection &ndash; they are pieces that belong in museums, but we are lucky enough to open them up to our customers. I think people will be so excited to get their hands on original Thierry Mugler designs.
You had the opportunity to meet and work with Manfred Thierry Mugler himself. How was working with him and what message you think he would like to give to the customers all around the world through this collection?
I was thrilled and honoured to meet him as he was always a hero of mine. We always hoped to include, within this collaboration, a blend of the old Mugler and the new Mugler. And obviously we were all shocked and devastated by his passing, and truly sad not to be able to bring his vision to life as he&rsquo;d been so enthusiastic about the collaboration. But then we were so happy that Casey was keen to pursue things, and in the end the collection is everything we could have dreamed of and more &ndash; it&rsquo;s so contemporary, in the way it unites eras and inspirations. Casey has done such an amazing job at offering a totally modern, exciting collection, while also using parts of the range to pay tribute to the history of the house, and to Thierry Mugler&rsquo;s legacy and designs, such by including special reissued archive pieces within the collection, like the amazing 80s and 90s dresses for women. I hope Thierry would feel that this was a fitting tribute, and a great celebration of her influence. It&rsquo;s very special for us, as we have never done something before that brings together the founder with the contemporary designer &ndash; so the backstory to this collection is very special. It&rsquo;s always wonderful when you have the chance to teach people a little about fashion history &ndash; to share these amazing stories, and Casey has really done that.
Campaign BTS images - exclusively for L'Officiel Baltic, Courtesy of H&amp;M

#MuglerHM: Casey Cadwallader (Mugler) and Anna Sofia Johansson (H&M)

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