Interview of Casey Cadwallader

My goal is to create a new culture around MUGLER, inspired by a multidisciplinary approach. I want MUGLER to be for many different types of women, of all ages, sizes, colors and for any moment of the day. I want to dress the people who inspire me, and for them to be equally inspired by the brand.

I also want to go back to the founding spirit of MUGLER, as Monsieur Mugler was a true risk taker and a visionary, someone who gave life to a unique and unconventional universe, regardless of trends and common sense. However the new MUGLER shouldn’t only be reliant to the esthetics that Monsieur Mugler created, it has to move forward, but what an amazing legacy to have as a foundation!

My process begins with the fabric, I guess that’s the architect in me talking: everything starts with the material. I love seeing and discovering new fabrics, textures, colors.

I am also very interested in art, and I hope this is something I will be able to convey through my work at MUGLER. My approach to art is also quite sensual, as I am looking for texture, color, combination of shapes, or sometimes I am primarily interested in motion and performance. I love interior design as well. Then I let all those things wash over me, I digest them and integrate them in my creative process. I need to feed my brain so I can make new things.

The things I stand for as a human being and as a designer are equality, celebrating diversity, individuality, and the defense of the environment.

I have been privileged in my life in the sense that I don’t have to face and deal with many hardships unlike many communities, and so all I can do is try and understand other perspectives. That is why empathy is very important to me. Each individual has a story to tell that we ought to listen.

I admire new technologies that solve problems for the environment. I was immediately fascinated by Tesla, and the way it offered clean energy cars in such a well-designed, modern and high tech way – I even bought stocks when it came out! Not enough unfortunately (laughs). The question of environment is very relevant at MUGLER too, in the fabrics we use, the kind of fiber… I think we ought to know the sourcing of our fabrics as a brand. Leather and fur is a subject as well, I hope that technologies will offer us an alternative to leather eventually, and I don’t use fur except from lamb which is not solely killed for that particular purpose. We won’t be using mink or fox fur in any collection either.

It was probably the MUGLER shows I saw on TV or George Michael’s Too Funky video. I grew up living in a little town in New Hampshire, so MTV was my outlet into the real world. A MUGLER show was an entirely other world to where I lived, it was so exciting to me I wanted to be there.

I always loved clothes with a sculptural and architectural dimension so I was always fascinated by the way MUGLER and other designers such as Alaïa or Narciso made clothes.

I always wanted to design things, but not necessarily clothes.

I was first very interested in gemstones and I even worked in a jewelry shop near my house for a few years where I learned everything about jewelry.

After that I was interested in brand name and I wanted to design cars – I had this idea about designing my own car brand with a logo and all. And then I moved on to buildings, I studied to become an architect at Cornell for 5 years. My friend who was working at Marc Jacobs told me about an internship there and it kind of happened. For me it’s all the same, it’s creating and building things with meaning.