Angels and innocents

Thierry Mugler likes to shock and surprise," says John Marangos, Mugler’s PR director – an admission that doesn’t really surprise, as Mugler was one of fashion’s foremost provocateurs in the Eighties. Along with designers like Azzedine Alaia, Mugler created an instantly identifiable style that seemed destined to take the catwalk into the new millennium.

"He was famous for his very sharp clothes," says Mariel Joaquin, Rustan’s division manager for prestige cosmetics and toiletries.

In his feminine silhouette, shapes and curves were accentuated by the strictness of the cut. Imagine an inverted triangle on top of another triangle, and you get the idea of the general shape of a Mugler dress.

For men, Mugler produced a similarly clear-cut, precise and structured image. Sure, it was heavy on the shoulder pads, but these pads were futuristic – not football.

The popularity of Mugler’s ready-to-wear for men and women reached its peak in the second half of the Eighties. His 1984 collection was presented in a mega-show before 6,000 people at the Zenith in Paris. It was the first fashion show in France ever opened to the general public.

In 1987, he opened a second Paris boutique at 49 Avenue Montaigne (his first opened in 1978 at the Place des Victoires).

Then, at the close of the Eighties, a decade notorious for its lifestyle excesses, Mugler all but disappeared. For five years all was quiet on the fashion front, until 1992, when he resurfaced again – not as an RTW designer, but as a couturier and fragrance creator.

Thierry Mugler’s Angel set the scent world on fire. It was the first gourmand oriental, appealing to sweet-toothed women everywhere with its notes of chocolate, vanilla, sandalwood, and patchouli, accompanied by fruity notes of fresh citrus, melons, peaches and plums. The bottle was also gorgeous – a star-shaped, ice-blue sculpture that resembled the world’s most avant-garde Christmas ornament.

In subsequent years, Mugler would launch a cult scent almost annually. There was his first men’s fragrance, "A*Men," then Mugler Cologne, which Rustan’s launched in the Philippines last year to great acclaim and best-seller status, thanks to our cologne culture and love for fresh scents.

This year, what delicious recipe is Thierry Mugler letting loose on the fragrance world? Innocent, another gourmand scent firmly related to the original Angel, but "fresher, fruitier and more effervescent" than its "dark, rich and dramatic" sister.

Innocent, with its notes of pure mandarin, honey, fresh almond and exotic fruits set on a rich bed of musk and amber, is sure to follow in the footsteps of Angel, the number-one-selling fragrance in France for six years in a row, says Marangos. (It’s number two in Europe and number three worldwide.)

"Innocent is for the innocent woman," says Marangos. "Not innocent literally but a woman with an innocent look or demeanor who uses her charms to seduce men, much like Charlotte York, Kristin Davis’s character in Sex and the City."

In Innocent’s ad campaign, a young, porcelain-skinned beauty is masked "because she’s playing a game with men."

The mysterious masked woman also recalls a circus performer – no coincidence on Planet Mugler. "Mr. Mugler hung up his needle and thread to focus on his two passions: theater and photography," says Marangos. The former designer trained in dance, ballet and photography, as a matter of fact. His latest project? Staging the first X-rated Cirque du Soleil show, Zumanity, which has been playing for the last year and a half in Las Vegas. Marangos notes that each costume cost US$40,000, which, in such a skimpily clad extravaganza, begs the question "Where did all the money go?"

"We think it’s a diamond thong," chuckles Marangos.

Mugler has been keeping busy working on two books: one documenting the making of Zumanity and the other a photography book. His Avenue Montaigne boutique has been converted into an "initiation space," where customers can experience the scents in Mugler’s fragrance universe first-hand.

Here in the Philippines, Innocent’s range includes the alcohol eau-de-parfum line in 25 ml., 50 ml. and 75 ml. glass bottles (P1,900 to P3,300), and an extensive bath line that includes the Delicate Body Milk (P700 to P1,400), Fondant Body Cream (P2,400), Fizzing Gel (P700) and Shower Mousse (P700), which Marangos dispenses like whipped cream onto a plate.

All the products have an edible, mischievous yet sexy quality to them. "They’re also gustative; they make you want to dig in and eat it," Marangos says.

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Innocent is available at all Rustan’s Department Stores.