The opening of Paris haute couture fashion week, trailed as a celebratory return to live catwalk shows, was overshadowed by the death of the fashion legend Manfred Thierry Mugler.
The unexpected announcement of Mugler’s death at the age of 73 made a dramatic start to fashion’s most theatrical week. Haute couture produces showstopping, headline-grabbing gowns for the upcoming red carpet season and for the world’s most extravagant parties. The pedestrian business of hemlines, which other fashion weeks concern themselves with, has no place here. Couture week had been hailed as a cheerful post-pandemic celebration of live fashion, with twice as many physical catwalk shows scheduled as last season, but the news of Mugler’s death, which came just days after a Louis Vuitton show paid tribute to the late Virgil Abloh, moved the mood music dial to bittersweet.
