Just Who Exactly Is Going To Design Nicola Formichetti’s New Line?

by Justin Fenner | 6:16 pm, August 1st, 2011

Mugler creative director Nicola Formichetti let slip last week that he’s in the early stages of creating his own fashion label. Which would be great, if he were actually a fashion designer.

In an interview with Milk Blog that got its fair share of attention, Formichetti discussed his New York pop-up shop and the what will be in it — and in the future, one of the labels he’ll carry alongside Uniqlo, Mugler and unknown Japanese designers will be his own eponymous label. Quoth Formichetti:

‘Also I’m launching my own brand next year, so there will be a sneak preview of what’s coming up in the future for that. So please come and visit me. I will be in and out of the store all the time.’

But we’re fairly certain garments that he designs, cuts, sews and fits himself won’t be in and out of there all the time. Formichetti might be a talented stylist and a visionary creative mind, but he’s not a designer. (As a refresher, he’s also not a very nice person, have said some unfortunate things about both people of size and advanced age in the past few weeks.) He may be know around the world as the architect of some of Lady Gaga‘s most memorable looks, but the outfits he creates for her are mostly ensembles of things designed by other people — even the famous meat dress was Gaga’s idea, executed by designer Franc Fernandez. Formichetti bows at the end of the runway shows he oversees for Clarins-owned Mugler, but without actual designers Sebastien Peigne and Romain Kremer on his staff, we don’t know that Formichetti would produce a single stitch of clothing for the house. A boring, porny promotional video does not a designer make.

Formichetti’s fame and success in the fashion industry is predicated on the idea of fashion as a team effort, not the single, crystal clear prevailing vision of one creative mind. So when he claims that he’ll be launching his own label, we’re prompted to ask, “You and what army?” If he convinced Mugler’s backers to bankroll his new label, we hope he got enough money in his budget for a few real designers, too. Because he’s going to need them.

[Grazia]

Eponymous Label Nicola Formichetti

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