Mugler casts Vivian Jenna Wilson in The Commander, a provocative campaign exploring power, desire, freedom and eroticism from a new perspective.
Mugler once again uses fashion as a space to challenge traditional codes of power. The maison presents The Commander, its new Autumn Winter 2026 campaign, starring Vivian Jenna Wilson and photographed by Robi Rodriguez, in which authority, desire, vulnerability and control constantly shift through a series of cinematic images.
The campaign develops the ideas introduced by Miguel Castro Freitas in his second collection for the house and represents a new chapter in the Trilogy of Glorified Clichés, the project through which the designer is revisiting some of the major archetypes historically associated with the Mugler universe and its distinctive interpretation of femininity.
This time, the starting point is power dressing, a language that has always occupied a prominent place within the house. However, Castro Freitas does not simply want to revive the conventional image of a powerful woman. Instead, his intention is to examine why certain visual codes continue to represent authority and, more importantly, what happens when women decide to reclaim them for themselves.
“Power dressing has always been part of Mugler’s language, but I wanted to look beyond the obvious idea of authority,” the designer explains. “What interests me is the seduction of power – why we are attracted to these symbols, and what happens when we decide to take them back for ourselves.”
Robi Rodriguez translates that reflection into scenes that appear to have been taken from an art-house film. The result combines theatricality, hedonism and a constant underlying sense of danger. Rather than playing a single character, Vivian Jenna Wilson continuously shifts positions: she commands, observes, obeys and also refuses.
That is precisely where one of the key ideas behind The Commander emerges. Mugler presents authority and vulnerability not as incompatible opposites, but as states that can be exchanged depending on the circumstances. Domination and submission no longer function as permanent identities, instead becoming roles that can be adopted, abandoned or even enjoyed.
The campaign repeatedly raises the same questions: who truly holds the power, who chooses to accept it and who remains an observer? When instinct disrupts the established rules, hierarchies begin to collapse and authority can change hands.
Beneath the collection’s immaculate surface, there is also something considerably more untamed. Etiquette, discipline and rules construct an appearance of perfect control, but desire remains underneath. Castro Freitas transforms that conflict into a creative tool where beauty, eroticism, excess and absurdity can coexist within the same image.
