What does power look like today? And what do we reveal about ourselves when we fetishise its visual codes?
With The Commander, the second chapter of A Trilogy of Glorified Clichés, Miguel Castro Freitas turns his gaze toward one of the most defining pillars of the Mugler legacy: power dressing. Yet here, power is not framed as brute force or even pure glamour. Instead, it emerges as intention, allure, and the subtle magnetism that shapes identity and desire – across both past and present.
In dialogue with the radical vision of Manfred Thierry Mugler, the collection revisits the house founder’s seminal explorations of authority and control. References to Les Secrétaires and Hiver Militaire return as conceptual anchors. More than forty years later, Castro Freitas approaches these ideas through a contemporary lens, acknowledging their enduring appeal while questioning how the aesthetics of power shift as time moves forward.
For Castro Freitas, the message is deeply personal and pointed.
“Ultimately, this show intends to acknowledge that self-empowerment is the most potent antidote of clarity to the oppressive forces and grey political climate that surrounds us at this very moment,” he said. “And most of all, it’s a manifesto of the highest power that we should never forget to reclaim: freedom.”
Power, in this vision, is anything but monolithic. It moves, adapts, seduces. Military details enter into dialogue with aristocratic court coats from the seventeenth century. The bold geometry of art deco is reimagined through the logic of 1980s corporate power wear – amplified, sharpened, sensualized. Echoes of 1940s glamour and authority resurface, while Castro Freitas’ signature silhouettes – commanding shoulders, cinched waists, expressive curves – act both as homage and as a reminder of the tension embedded within the visual codes of leadership.
Garments traditionally associated with functional authority – workwear and ceremonial dress – are transformed into declarations of intent and self-possession. Confidence remains the central thread. Power becomes the ability to navigate attraction, release, and exchange.
Throughout the collection, early twentieth-century constructivism informs the discipline of the silhouettes, while Bauhaus principles of structure and function introduce architectural precision. Authority is expressed not only through form but also through material and colour: vibrant shearling, printed silks, metallic leathers, and luminous lamé.
The body, and glamour itself, remain essential. Not as decoration, but as affirmation.
Accessories continue the narrative. The Aurora and Lua handbags return, accompanied by seasonal briefcases constructed with carabiner-inspired hardware.
Presented inside Paris’ Palais de la Porte Dorée, The Commander explores how power is worn, interpreted, and ultimately redefined. It questions the established choreography of authority: who commands, who follows, and who submits. In doing so, it suggests that strength itself can be transformed through dress.
In true Mugler spirit, eroticism is never ornamental – it is a language of confidence and directness.
With The Commander, Mugler proposes a renewed vision of power dressing: one grounded in agency.
