G-Dragon vs Nicola Formichetti: "I Am Mugler" BTS and Preview

It's been an eventful day for G-Dragon.  Not only has he been to the Golden Disk Awards and won some stuff, he also partnered with Lady Gaga's stylist, Nicola Formichetti, on a track for the MUGLER f/w 2013 menswear fashion show.

Check out the BTS video featuring a preview of GD's runway track below:

Nicola Formichetti And Big Bang's G-Dragon Collaborate For "I Am Mugler"

The one thing I can’t get enough of is how Nicola Formichetti commissions exclusive music for his shows with Mugler. It’s never predictable and the selections have run the gamut from Lady Gaga to Azealia Banks to the legendary Japanese composer Ryuchi Sakamoto. Each time, it’s like the score cracks open Nicola’s head to reveal what he was thinking during the inception of each collection and it’s fascinating. So when “Nicopanda” shot me an email that he’d been working with Korean megastar, Big Bang’s G-Dragon for his latest, I got really excited. It’s hardly news to regular readers of this site that K-pop is my jam.

When Nicola and I talked yesterday afternoon he was exhausted but energized. It was 10:00PM Paris time and he still had about 10 more dudes to fit before he could go home. That said, he wasn’t too tired to give me the scoop on his “theme song” for the Mugler Fall/Winter 2013 Men’s collection. Despite Big Bang’s success, it’s G-Dragon’s work on his own that Nicola specifically responded to. “I wasn’t sure that Big Bang’s music was right,” says Formichetti. “It’s too pop for what I wanted to do with the season but G-Dragon’s solo career has a lot more rap, trance, a lot more techno.”

The single that would become “I Am Mugler” came about in true Nicola fashion—over the internet. It’s hardly a surprise if you consider how he and Azealia met over Instagram. “You know how I do things,” he says. “It was a virtual collaboration. G-Dragon and I have friends in common and he’s like me—always traveling like crazy—he was touring Asia while I was in Italy so we emailed. He sent me a track, we worked on it together and then the new track came in. [At Mugler] we had it playing the whole time to help us create the looks.”

“I Am Mugler” features G-Dragon rapping and was intended to complement the clean, sci-fi mens looks that were inspired by Asia—Korea in particular. “Obviously, I didn’t do any traditional Korean costume or anything,” says the creative director. “It’s more about the energy. Korean kids right now are so fearless and daring and they create cool music and fashion. It’s an exciting vibe.” From what we’ve seen from exclusive images backstage at the fitting, it translates into durable materials (neoprene and vinyl?), exaggerated militaristic details and silhouettes with outsized fastenings and the general feel that any of these lovely young lads could go rappelling down the side of a building quite comfortably.

While the CFDA fashion icon concedes that Tokyo is still de rigeur as a whole movement and that there are strong European menswear tailoring elements throughout, there’s just something about the stuff coming out of Seoul that tickles his fancy. And if you look to G-Dragon’s photos online and his style in videos, you’ll recognize that something fantastic and new is definitely going on. The Mugler show will begin at 5:00PM Paris time (noon ET) but they’ve just released a lovely video of the lead up to whet your appetite. “I Am Mugler” will be available on soundcloud tomorrow afternoon and as always, check Nicola Formichetti’s Tumblr, Twitter and IG feeds for updates.

cr: MTV Style

Click here to check out the rest of the line.

The song seems to be a typical runway tune, which I'm happy about because I love techno and house and all that good stuff.  I'm excited to hear the whole thing!  

"I Am Mugler" will be released on Mugler's Soundcloud on January 17th, so stay tuned.

Let me know if you got a chance to live stream the show today!


Source: #MUGLER @ vimeo, Style.com.  Collage by Oddness/Weirdness.  Take out with full credit.