It’s not often that anyone gets to dip their toes into the Mugler archives, let alone pull more than a handful of some of the brand’s most iconic ’80s and ’90s runway moments. However, when Miley Cyrus and her longtime stylist Bradley Kenneth set out to craft a style narrative for the singer’s highly-anticipated visual album, Something Beautiful, out May 30th, that was their first stop. For Kenneth, it felt like a career pinnacle to not only get to hold historic pieces, but to give them new life within Cyrus’s creative vision. He tells ELLE: “It was a total dream come true. There were no real boundaries, and it really was just something beautiful.”
Below, the stylist shares what it was like buying up Thierry Mugler runway monographs for image research, taking inspiration from the music, handling uber-delicate garments, and more.
Miley has had such distinct fashion moments and now has settled into this rock-star look—Alaïa, Saint Laurent, the works. Can you explain how this current style, utilizing the Mugler archive, is different from previous eras?
The inspiration really came from the album title, Something Beautiful. When you look at Endless Summer Vacation, that was very minimal, it was a lot of bathing suits, and it really wiped the slate clean. So for this album, when I heard the title, I immediately thought of Thierry Mugler, the magic of his runway shows, and how he told stories with fashion. When I reached out to the [Mugler team] and got the green light, I knew that this was it for the album.
Do you feel that the fashion in this album is a culmination of Miley’s style endeavors as an artist?
Definitely. You’ll see some silhouettes [referencing] things she’s worn in the past. The video hasn’t come out yet, but there’s some spring 1992 baby-blue feathered chaps and a turquoise bra that’s very reminiscent of her Bangerz era. But [her style] is just on a different level now. It’s archive couture Mugler! And anytime I get the theoretical key to one of those archives, I feel like I’ve like climbed to the top of another mountain. I also think that it’s a testament to what people think of Miley. For example, we’ve had access to the Galliano archives, or when he did the Margiela recreation of his own fall 1997 safety pin dress—I have that sketch hanging in my office.
When you went into Mugler, what was that process like, securing one of the largest archive pulls in brand history?
When I officially got the approval, I went out and bought every book possible on [Mugler runways] because there’s some stuff that you just can’t find online. Next, I created PDFs, and I had my top choices. I shot for the moon. I didn’t care if it was too extravagant or too old or anything. Then Mugler [came] back and told me what’s available in the archive, what’s not there, what’s damaged, what’s too fragile, etc. They’ll tell you, we have the pants, but we don’t have the jacket, for example.
Then they shipped them in these huge metal Worldnet boxes—I had the chills. I’ve looked at these outfits in books even when I was younger and admired them, so to have the real thing in my hands and see the quality of it, how it was made, the construction, and just all those little details, it’s so surreal.
With your top choices, did you have specific ideas of how you wanted to pair each look with each song?
Definitely. The look that’s on the cover of her album, which is from the “Les Insects” [spring] 1997 couture collection, was inspired by the morning dew on a spider web. I knew that in the album opening they wanted to show a beautifully lit flower. The goal was to showcase something so beautiful in your every day that you might take for granted. And for me, I wanted something really complimentary to that, exactly like the morning dew on a spider web.
Do you feel like the music was then this guiding force where you say, “Okay, how do we get these looks to evoke similar feelings?”
Absolutely. The music always comes first. When the album’s being created, I’ll go with her [to the studio] and I’ll just listen to what she’s doing and she’ll tell me what a song makes her feel or what she sees. She’s a part of the creative process in every single aspect, and she really is a true genius when it comes to that. She also really appreciates and respects fashion to where she understands the history and value what she’s wearing. She’ll never put on a dress and say “Who cares if it rips?”
Were there any other looks that stood out as your favorite?
There’s this look in the “More To Lose” video, which just came out, from the fall 1998 collection, which was then also famously shot by Helmut Newton. And so to have that, which forms such a piece of fashion history in our own hands, and getting shot on Miley—I’m such a fashion nerd for these moments. I also loved the black spider look from 1997, that we put in the inside of her album packaging, seeing that beading up close was incredible.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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