‘‘You don’t want to be reminded that you did this or you did that. It is disturbing.’’


Thierry Mugler may be the first designer whose success can be said to have increased in direct correlation to his personal desire to never again be seen.

After Clarins, the French fragrance company that has owned his name since 1997, shuttered his futuristic-power- babe fashion line in 2003 in the wake of huge financial losses, it seemed as if he had fallen off the face of the earth - only to return four years later as a completely transformed person, barely recognizable, having remade his body into a living spectacle of muscle and tattoo with an extreme regimen of diet, exercise and what is apparently plastic surgery.

That was the intention, Mr. Mugler said, because he did not want to be recognized. “You don’t want to be reminded that you did this or you did that,” he said. “It is disturbing.”

Though his collections, which included exaggerated power suits, leather masks and robotic armor, were often dismissed as sexist fantasies in the 1980s, and though Mr. Mugler felt unappreciated by major magazine editors and critics, his impact has been surprisingly durable.

There has been an unmistakable revival of his hard-edged, body-conscious and futuristic styles in recent runway fashion, suggesting that his work was simply ahead of its time.

His 1992 motorcycle bustier (it has handle bars extending from the breasts) was the hit of the 2008 “Superheroes” show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York, which inspired Beyonce to seek him out to create the wardrobe for her concert tour last year.

“It was a sort of vindication,” Mr. Mug ler said. “Before, they said I was only about sex shop.”

More telling of his influence is the consistent strength of his fragrance business with Clarins. The blockbuster scent Angel, introduced in 1992, and a second scent called Alien, from 2005, now generate close to $280 million in annual sales. A third, which was introduced in Paris this month, is expected to add $80 million in sales.

Mr. Mugler’s latest fragrance is called Womanity. Its name in broad terms is intended to evoke a metaphysical bond that exists among all of womankind.

Its smell is as audacious as is its name ? a commingling of figs and caviar, a sweet-salty combination as treacly as a chocolate-covered pretzel.

When Mr. Mugler arrived in Paris in the 1960s, he was a lithe ballet dancer, incredibly handsome with a catlike grace. Today, at 61, he has muscles so bulging as to impede natural movement .

His metamorphosis was indeed a conscious decision, Mr. Mugler said. A hallmark of his style was to create the impression of wild animals on his runway, with women transformed into exotic birds and jungle cats. Without that outlet to provoke, he began to change his own appearance.

“The reason I quit fashion was that I had had enough of spending my time always being on my knees, making other people look amazing and fabulous,” he said. “I used fashion to express myself as much as I could. But at some point, it was not enough.”


By ERIC WILSON