Thierry Mugler on his quest for true beauty: “You have to be brave to be happy”

Throughout the three decades he was at the helm of his eponymous label, Thierry Mugler travelled the world photographing his designs alongside its many wonders. “I’ve been a photographer all my life,” he says. “It’s a big part of who I am and a big part of my quest for beauty.” A new book, Manfred Thierry Mugler, Photographer (Abrams & Chronicle Books, out 14 April) brings 150 of those images together in one compendium, along with behind-the-scenes shots and carnet de voyages (travelogues) to provide a sumptuous visual odyssey.

Mugler’s photographs are as ambitious as his shows—imagine the drama of that AW95 hour-long extravaganza comprising 300 looks modelled by Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss and Jerry Hall, among others, condensed to a single frame. From one page to the next, Mugler transports us from Paris to New York, where models perch precariously on landmarks such as the Opéra Garnier and the gargoyles of the Chrysler Building. He leads us to some of humanity’s greatest architectural feats—Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow and the Great Mosque of Djenné in Mali—and urges us to explore the salt flats of Chile’s Atacama Desert, the lush forests surrounding Guilin in China and the volcanic beaches of Hawaii.

Mugler may have sold his business in 2001, but he has never stopped producing, serving as creative advisor and costume designer for Beyoncé’s 2009 I Am… World Tour and collaborating on a Wayne McGregor ballet in 2019. That quest for beauty, it seems, is thankfully lifelong.

When was your first foray into photography?

“When I was eight years old, I made my first short movie—my father was the cameraman—but I took my first fashion photo when I was 14. I was a professional ballet dancer [at the Rhin Opera in Alsace, France] at the time, and staged a fashion show. I did all the production, styling, location [scouting], photography, everything. It’s very difficult for me to separate these tools. I’m a director first and foremost because I think about the whole concept. That’s why I did storyboards to bring all my fashion shows to life. Photography became more professional when I started shooting my own campaigns for the ready-to-wear and then for the fragrance.”

How do you think that experience of being a dancer has informed you as a designer and a photographer, or as a director?

“It taught me the importance of technique. There is no beauty; no inventive, innovative art whether it be fashion, ballet, photography, direction—you have to go through a certain process. For me—a complete wild kid—it was very difficult to learn all that. It taught me the difference between positive pain and negative pain.”

What do you think makes a great photograph?

“I dream in images and I want to realise that image using the best ingredients. And the best ingredients are, of course, in nature—they’re not a green screen or Photoshop. So then you have to go on a quest for quality: to find the best, most beautiful vision you can, whether that be icebergs in Greenland, incredible rocks in Utah, mosques made from mud in Mali or sand dunes in the Sahara. It’s about the appeal of adventure.”

Your photographs of models standing on icebergs in Greenland seem almost impossible. How did you achieve this outcome?

“A lot of the photos of icebergs in Greenland are taken from the land, but when you see them up close, they’re dirty [in colour] and their angles aren’t sharp. So we—the model Anna Bayle, myself and a stylist—travelled by boat roughly 20 nautical miles out to sea. It was around the summer solstice so we had the midnight sun. [Anna], this brave lady, would have to step onto the iceberg, positioned on tiny pieces of folded survival blankets hidden from view, and I would take the photo in about two seconds. Sometimes we’d wait for days to get the right light.”

These glacial environments are contrasted by the heat of the African sun—shots of Iman in the Algerian Sahara, the late Katoucha Niane on the banks of the River Niger and Carol Miles at the Great Mosque of Djenné in Mali. What drew you to these places?

“Mali is an incredible country and the Mosque of Djenné is one of the most unique examples of African architecture. It’s made from a material called banco [adobe]—a mixture of mud, clay and straw. I spent four hours drinking tea with the men of the town to get authorisation to shoot there.

Everything worked in harmony; the structure and personality of Carol’s face, the architectural features and the sky—it’s almost yellow. Taking a photograph is like making a pact with God; you wait and you wait and trust that you will be given the right light and the right gesture at the right moment. When that happens, it’s all worth it.”

Your exhibition Thierry Mugler: Couturissime in 2019 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts attracted almost 300,000 visitors, and the likes of Kim Kardashian West and Cardi B are wearing your archive pieces. What is it about your work that continues to resonate with people?

“Because my work pays tribute to the woman and her personality—I give them armour. That’s why my fashion shows were always so complicated, because I worked with each model individually to style their clothes, create different hair and makeup looks, give them their own part and direct them on stage. My work is timeless because it’s based on the beauty of the human body and the fascinating world we live in.”

Why is beauty so important to you personally?

“Beauty is important in our world. It’s generosity; honesty; politeness; the feeling between people; part of the ‘everyday’—and it’s the best way to communicate a message. Beauty isn’t very trendy these days. Look at the movie industry—it spends so much money on violence. So yes, I’m an activist promoting beauty in this world.”

Why do you think people have become detached from beauty?

“Because they are lost. In the west, we are living in a very difficult civilisation and we forget that people are living differently to us. We are trapped in our own little materialistic world and people don’t dare to look beyond that, they don’t have the courage. You have to have guts to be happy; you have to be brave.”

Manfred Thierry Mugler, Photographer is published by Abrams & Chronicle Books and out 14 April 2020

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