Thierry Mugler Fashion Exhibition at Montreal Museum of Fine Arts - Essay Sample

Introduction

The museum that I will be visiting is the Montreal Museum of fine arts. This museum is located in Montreal in Quebec Canada on the historic Golden Square mile. It is ranked as among the largest museums in the country and the largest in the city. The exhibition that I saw in the museum was the Thierry Mugler fashion exhibition. This is a fashion exhibition with clothes ranging from 1977 to 2014. The artist that I have chosen to write about is the Thierry Mugler. He is a French fashion designer known for his ingenious designs that have resulted in some of the best dresses in history. Some of his designs have been worn by celebrities and the high and mighty all over the world. He was born on 21 December 1948 in Strasbourg in France. Throughout his life, he was obsessed with drawing and designing which led him to join the Strasbourg school of decorative arts. His work is mainly inspired by his time, and the majority of his dresses have themes of the late twentieth century.

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Mugler is a contemporary artist because the majority of his works are based in the last couple of decades in the twentieth century. The dresses that so colorfully adorn the wardrobes of celebrities were created in this era. Because of this, I find the creations of this artist very significant to fashion in the modern era. In fashion, the past cannot be overlooked or forgotten. The past is important to provide motivation and direction on the way the new fashion direction should go. The creations of this artist not only serve to remind us of the past fashions but also integrate the old and the new fashions so seamlessly that the difference is unnoticeable. Furthermore, this artist takes a completely new approach to fashion that had not been seen before. For example, there is a dress that the artist has made it look like a motorcycle with all the accessories like the handlebars and a headlight. This is unlike any other dresses that were created at the time. Through this different approach to fashion, it gave another artist that were unable to express themselves because of fear to gain the courage to express themselves. This artist conveys meaning through his work by the way that he mixes color in his dresses. When I examined the majority of the dresses that he had created, the use of color was vivid. He was not afraid to mix colors in order to convey his message. Whatever color that he mixes he usually produces dresses that are beautiful to look at. I think that this piece was created when it was to push for the empowerment of women in society. When this dress was made, many people were actively pushing for gender equality and the involvement of women in many decision-making processes in both the government and in the society at large. This dress is a fur dress resembling a mythical beast, with a golden corset with scales, feathers, and embroidered hairs. the way that I interpret this dress is that women can tame the beast and look even more dashing while they do it. The piece is about taking on an unusual design choice and making it look good. The piece is about empowering women to take on new challenges that might be different from what they are used to. the artist has a lot of messages that he tries to communicate to the audience. the dress is inspired by a mythical beast, and yet the dress comes out to be one of the most sought-after pieces. before he made the dress, many people were afraid to make their clothes based on unreal objects and fantasies. when he does this, he shows the audience that with enough concentration and talent, they can make anything work no matter how difficult. I believe that the intended audience for this work was the upper-middle-class woman. He tries to empower women of all ages and social class, but the middle-class women were the most affected by the gender disparity at the time of making the dress.

This piece was created in 1984. during that year, there are a lot of events that took place that might be attributed to being the contributing factors to the creation of this piece. the main one is the incident of the beauty queen killer. This was a serial killer named Christopher Bernard Wilder who had gone on a six-week cross country killing spree. his crimes were all across the country starting from Florida and traversing seven states before being killed in New York. he was known as the beauty queen killer because he mainly targeted beautiful women who would have been potential beauty queens. he committed a total of twelve rapes and eight confirmed murders. I believe that Thierry used this opportunity to show the women that they had a right to be as beautiful as they wanted without having to fear for their lives. he created this dress to show exactly that. Through women wearing his dresses, they were given a sort of power over whoever wanted to oppress them because of their sexuality or beauty.

From this piece, there is a lot that we can learn. For example, we should have the courage to pursue that which we want no matter what people say. When Thierry started creating this piece, many people told him that the piece, like many of his other works, was so different that many people could not associate with it. However, he did not give in to the pressure and decided to forge on with the creation of the dress. The result is a piece that has marveled many people since it was made to date. Another teaching is the importance of women empowerment in the country. All of Thierry's dresses and especially this try to portray the feminism of women. He tries to bring out the most attractive features in this piece. For example, the slender silhouette tells us more about the expectation of women`s beauty at the time of its creation. He makes the dress to bring out the models most pronounced features like her hips and her bosom. This makes the model look all too beautiful in the dress. The mixture of color that is clearly vivid in the dress is also another aspect of beauty at the time. At the time of the creation of this dress, it was commonplace for artists and fashion designers to mix color in their works to try and produce the best works. In this dress, Thierry has different colors that change depending on how the light strikes different part of the dress. This is a true work of art that deserves its place as one of the best fashion pieces.

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