<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"    Photo: David X Prutting/BFAnyc.com   Fresh off the plane from Japan, Nicola Formichetti arrived at the top of The Standard Hotel without a trace of jet lag. To kick off fashion week, the designer hosted an intimate f\u00EAte last night celebrating the launch of Mugler on Shopbop, as well as his limited-edition graffiti-print handbag, the Muglerette, designed exclusively for the online retailer. A coterie of boldface fashion names gathered to toast Formichetti&amp;#039;s first foray into handbag design including Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, Leandra Medine, and Leigh Lezark. The Misshapes provided the soundtrack for the night\u2014an eclectic array of artists from Grimes to Big Boi.   Many Muglerettes were on display throughout the event with party-goers admiring Formichetti&amp;#039;s one-of-a-kinds designs\u2014each boasting his signature hand-painted &amp;quot;Nicopanda&amp;quot; doodles. ELLE.com caught up with the man of the hour on his new-found appreciation for handbags, reality star muse Kim Kardashian, and being awestruck by Lady Gaga&amp;#039;s derriere. ELLE: What was the inspiration behind the Muglerette? Nicola Formichetti: Japan, for me, will always be my inspiration source. It&amp;#039;s a mixture of a Mugler bag, which is very futuristic, and my signature graffiti Nicopanda. So it&amp;#039;s kind of like East meets West. I made it all one-off and personal. We need that kind of personal touch these days. Everything is so mass-produced and doesn&amp;#039;t have soul. ELLE: Do you envision a certain kind of girl with a Mugler bag on her arm? NF: Our girl is very much the Mugler girl. She&amp;#039;s very sexy and modern. A little bit hard and strong. I wanted to stick to that. I know that not every girl can wear a piece of Mugler; it&amp;#039;s such a strong silhouette. But it&amp;#039;s different with a bag. I just imagined my girlfriends in New York, London, Paris, or Tokyo because they know how to mix and match. ELLE: The Muglerette features your signature graffiti print, what graffiti artists have influenced you? NF: Keith Haring, obviously. I don&amp;#039;t call it graffiti, I just call it my scribbles [laughs]. I&amp;#039;m just doing it in my kind of childish way. I love Keith&amp;#039;s work. When I started my Nicopanda, I wanted to do something similar. I was basically copying the way Keith drew, and the technique stuck. In fact, I just did a collaboration with Keith Haring that I can&amp;#039;t really talk about, but that&amp;#039;s coming next season. It&amp;#039;s more of an homage to Keith&amp;#039;s work, really. I&amp;#039;m moving my office tomorrow from Soho to Tribeca [in NYC], and I&amp;#039;m thinking about graffiting the entire space, like Keith used to do in his Pop Shop store. ELLE: Have you always wanted to design handbags? NF: Actually, I never liked the idea of bags. I would say, &amp;quot;Why do so many of my friends spend so much money on these bloody bags?&amp;quot; But once I started designing them, I was completely hooked. There are all of these blogs about bags. It&amp;#039;s a whole other industry, and I&amp;#039;m really excited to be a part of it. We&amp;#039;re very small and just starting now, so for this collaboration with Shopbop, I just wanted to make it even more personal. More me, with Mugler. ELLE: What has this handbag collection done for Mugler&amp;#039;s evolution as a brand? NF: Basically, it&amp;#039;s broadened the audience. People that like what we do maybe can&amp;#039;t afford it or the style was a bit too much. This handbag collection made it more approachable, which is super exciting because I want everyone to wear it. It&amp;#039;s funny because I&amp;#039;ve always been kind of anti-wearable clothing. I was always like, &amp;quot;Anything but wearable clothes.&amp;quot; But when you start doing a collection, meeting customers, collaborating with stores like Shopbop, and getting feedback, of course you want to design something that women can wear easily. That&amp;#039;s new for the house of Mugler. ELLE: Could you tell us about the handbag that was inspired by Lady Gaga&amp;#039;s bum? NF: Oh, yeah. [Laughs] The Gaga bag is called the Monster X and is not out yet. Basically, I just wanted to do something that was inspired by her beautiful [behind]. I just had to do something with her [behind]. The other one is called Naboo and was inspired by the planet from Star Wars, and it looks like a spaceship. ELLE: In addition to Lady Gaga, who else serves as a muse for you? NF: I&amp;#039;ve been working with Kim Kardashian. For me, she&amp;#039;s so important at the moment. I&amp;#039;ve got this feeling with her, like when I first met Gaga three or four years ago. Kim really excites me, in a different way. She&amp;#039;s approachable for girls. Her body&amp;#039;s real. She&amp;#039;s got an amazing [behind] too. I think we&amp;#039;re going to do something very interesting soon. She said she&amp;#039;s coming to the show in Paris. ELLE: Lastly, if you were to carry around a handbag, what personal essentials would be inside of it? NF: For me? Oh, that&amp;#039;s easy. I always carry my little perfume by Inez &amp;amp;amp; Vinoodh, my iPhone, my face creams, and cigarettes. I&amp;#039;ve started wearing bags again, you know. The Muglerette handbag ($1,945) is available for purchase at Shopbop.com. Keep up to date on the latest breaking fashion news stories.  Photo: David X Prutting/BFAnyc.com "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/fashion/news/a16825/nicola-formichetti-mugler-handbag-interview/?src=global_footer>