JIMMY CHOO x MUGLER Advertising Campaign is a creative partnership fusing two heritages founded on visions of powerful, confident and glamorous femininity, Jimmy Choo has collaborated with the French house of Mugler on an exclusive capsule collection of shoes and boots co-designed by the houses respective Creative Director’s Sandra Choi and Casey Cadwallader. Inspired by the storied history of the French maison and Jimmy Choo’s legacy of glamorous craftsmanship blended with the twenty-first century identities forged by both creative directors, the collaboration takes as its leitmotif the ideas of the extreme and of empowerment. The result is a unique hybrid of two different aesthetics that share strong and dramatic perspectives with design details that not only decorate but stimulate the senses.
The silhouettes are universal: a 100mm heel with a carved, architectural shape and a graphic, sharply squared base. The vamp is elongated, exaggerated, razored to a fine point - a focal-point on the foot, and the body as a whole. The colour palette is focused: black and nude, neon yellow, silver and gold. And windows are constantly opened onto the skin, framing the body with seams, chains, fine leather straps and panels of mesh. Celebrations of powerful femininity in all its forms and guises offered in a diverse and inclusive range of sizes, from 35 to 45.
Reflecting the parallel ideologies of both Jimmy Choo and Mugler, the capsule collection transgresses boundaries, challenging conventions. As the personalities of these two brands and the outlooks of their two creative directors merge, so do the languages, techniques and materials of footwear, jewellery and clothing. Rather than shoes as objets d’art, the body is integral to animate these pieces - to bring them to life, to shape and define them.
The JCXM SOCK BOOTS, at ankle or over-the-knee length, offered in black with nude and vibrant neon yellow with nude, draw material inspiration from Casey Cadwallader’s best-selling, high-octane ‘Spiral’ and ‘Illusion’ bodysuits. Hyper body-conscious clothing, contouring the body to heighten and celebrate the curves of the female form. Here, Choi and Cadwallader translate that to footwear, working with innovative new technologies and specialist hosiery and clothing fabrication teams, as well as Jimmy Choo’s expert Italian manufacturers, to boldly cross the line between clothing and footwear. The JCXM KNEE SANDAL draws on the world of bijoux and haute jewellery so often referenced with the clothes and accessories of both brands. Here, in liquid gold leather and metal chains, a shoe becomes an object of adornment, revealing more than it conceals. The same principal of jewellery meeting footwear translated to the JCXM PUMP, where a precious gold chain forms an infinity loop around ankle and arch, lassoing the shoe to the body.
By contrast, the JCXM STRAP celebrates the art of shoemaking, with strapping that worships the foot with tiny buckled leather straps - an homage to the fine leather sandals of Jimmy Choo in the 1990s, and a signature of Mugler. Here, they cross not only the ankle but the vamp and toe, a graphic tool to frame the foot. They are translated into trompe l’oeil for the JCXM SOCK PUMP - a boot that instead resembles a high strapped, crystal-studded pump on a leg encased in a Mugler stocking - a true fusion of both fashion brands in one statement piece. The logical conclusion to a collection that celebrates the body in every form is the JCXM SANDAL, a shoe that plays with plexi appearing to magically float under the form of the naked foot, only anchored into position with a sparkling crystal ball balanced between the toes. The ultimate marriage of the female form divine and an uncompromising modern glamour - it is unmistakably Mugler, and quintessentially Jimmy Choo.
“Casey Cadwallader’s Mugler is all about celebrating femininity - that’s what drew me to him, to his world, and to the amazing array of personalities he dresses. There’s an inherent connection there between the language of Mugler and the language of Jimmy Choo - our roots in the 1990s, the resonance those have today with a younger generation, but the urge to update, to re-engineer and not just revive. On a personal level - Casey adores shoes, the possibilities for transforming both a silhouette and an attitude through footwear. It’s been a joy working together on this collection, dedicated to the strong women that are at the heart of both Mugler and Jimmy Choo.” Sandra Choi, Creative Director Jimmy Choo. “’A shoe finishes the look and defines character. I have always associated Jimmy Choo with a very strong sense of sculpture in shoes, a balance of sharpness and curve. Both Mugler and Jimmy Choo are forward and sensual, and both worn by strong and confident women. That's why this collaboration makes so much sense. There’s a clear synergy between Sandra and I when we work together.” Casey Cadwallader, Creative Director Mugler.
