French fashion designer (Manfred) Thierry Mugler was BOTD in 1948. Born in Strasbourg, he trained as a classical dancer and joined the ballet corps for the Rhin Opera. He also studied interior design, moving to Paris in his 20s and designing for Gudule and other ready-to-wear fashion houses. He created his first solo collection in 1973 and opened a boutique in Paris in 1978. His designs, influenced by S&M, punk and drag culture, effectively invented power-dressing, with huge shoulder pads, sharply sculptured tailoring and corsetry, and use of leather and latex. Openly gay during the height of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, he was one of the first designers to use trans models and drag queens in his catwalk shows. His futuristic sci-fi designs were worn by celebrities including Diana Ross, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Madonna and particularly Grace Jones, who spent most of the 1980s wearing his designer tracksuits. Cleverly harnessing the appeal of pop culture to promote his work, he designed Demi Moore’s black “seduction” dress for the film Indecent Proposal and styled George Michael’s music video for Too Funky. After retiring from his brand in 2003, he continued to create costumes for Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Cardi B and the Cirque du Soleil circus show. In 2010, he underwent an extreme physical transformation via bodybuilding, plastic surgery (and, probably, steroids), reverting to his birth name Manfred and releasing nude photos of himself. His last triumph of glorious bad taste was a dress for Kim Kardashian, worn to the 2019 New York Metropolitan Museum Gala, in which the surgically-altered Kardashian appeared to be dripping wet. He died in 2022, aged 73.