He started with an internship at Marc Jacobs and then he developed his experience at Loewe (Head of Womenswear), Narciso Rodriguez and Acne Studios. Cadwallader tells us how he respectfully entered the archives and filtered them through his eyes while keeping intact the DNA made of inclusivity, transgression, sensuality and fun. In the very days when Paris was celebrating, with a stupendous exhibition at the Musée des Art Decoratif, Manfred Thierry Mugler, as he had decided to call himself in order to separate his person from the brand, recently passed away.
GC The theme of this issue is THE NEW FUTURE. How do you feel it will be, considering also today’s world which is changing?
CC At Mugler it’s always important to think in the future since it has always been very forward-thinking for materials, technology and culture. Expressions of gender are and will be a really important point. In my personal journey as a gay man who had to be embarrassed for being feminine when I was younger, now I appreciate it. On Friday night I could be in leather at a club and on Monday morning I have my reading glasses in the office with the same ease. There are different touchpoints to individuality. Also, what about your new digital self and where’s that going to go? I think that the idea of a virtual closet, a virtual identity and all of that is both exciting and scary because the reality that you live in is unavoidable. These virtual dimensions can create a sense of detachment and I don’t know how good that is. You might forget to clean your refrigerator or feed your dog… I’m also very focused on how I feel in my real body in terms of physical health, eating, sleeping and taking care of myself because that allows my brain to be well-fed and helps me think on a higher level how delicate the balance is. It concerns me that in this scenario the actual breathing blood-pumping human body risks being left behind.
There was a moment where I understood that I needed to turn it up because Mugler is supposed to make your jaw drop and maybe I was not doing that. That gave me the fire to be more daring.
GC That’s true. And talking about the future, in which direction are both fashion and society moving? Also considering that the pandemic sped up some processes and changed our habits.
CC The pandemic changed everything, and then I feel like part of it snatched right back into place. I guess I felt that something like this was going to happen, so I was kind of ready. It’s interesting because we all imagine that there is an end to the pandemic, but who knows how. In general, fashion is at a moment where it allows other adventures and creativity than it used to. Before you had to show on that schedule or else you were out! Now it’s a bit more malleable, which for me, as a person who doesn’t like following rules all the time, creates a different level of possibilities. So, I do think that it’s something that has changed the whole industry. People are able to explore their own business model and their own relationship with their customers. Things are so much more open-minded now.
GC That’s true. And talking about the future, in which direction are both fashion and society moving? Also considering that the pandemic sped up some processes and changed our habits.
CC The pandemic changed everything, and then I feel like part of it snatched right back into place. I guess I felt that something like this was going to happen, so I was kind of ready. It’s interesting because we all imagine that there is an end to the pandemic, but who knows how. In general, fashion is at a moment where it allows other adventures and creativity than it used to. Before you had to show on that schedule or else you were out! Now it’s a bit more malleable, which for me, as a person who doesn’t like following rules all the time, creates a different level of possibilities. So, I do think that it’s something that has changed the whole industry. People are able to explore their own business model and their own relationship with their customers. Things are so much more open-minded now.
GC I feel that it is a period of focusing and fine-tuning on new formulas, don’t you think?
CC Yes, but it hasn’t yielded a new universal one for everybody. There are many different models coming up, so let’s see what happens.
GC Talking about your work at Mugler, it evolved along with the empowerment of women and every show is an injection of positive energy. How can you explain this evolution?
CC I thought about that a lot. There are so many levels to get up and running and so it has been, along with things that people don’t see from an outside perspective. You arrive at the House on the first day, you don’t know anyone, you have to meet your team. Some people are leaving and you’re hiring new ones. It takes at least a year to fix, then you start to see this uplift. This is one point, then there’s me having to acclimate, feel the House and be felt. This gradual evolution made me realize that there were ways in which I connected to powers within the House that I hadn’t yet discovered for myself. There was a moment where I understood that I needed to turn it up because Mugler is supposed to make your jaw drop and maybe I was not doing that. That gave me the fire to be more daring. Of course it’s scary to take big risks, especially when you just arrived, but I did it step by step adding a piece to every collection. I grew my own confidence about being bold and not taking it so seriously. And once I’d sort of gotten the swing of it, I knew that if I was having fun, my audience was having fun. But you don’t do it overnight.
Read the full interview on Muse September Issue 59.
