Mugler SS26
Gallery / 44 images
In the late 1990s, when he was just a teenager, Mugler’s creative director Miguel Castro Freitas became obsessed with the Mancunian performance artist David Hoyle. Back then Hoyle was known as the Divine David, terrorising terrestrial TV with his anti-drag persona, a raucous mix of political commentary, comedy and experimental fashion choices. “He’d sort of seen me when he was younger, when I used to do The Divine David Presents on Channel 4, and he was very taken with it,” says Hoyle over a crackly phone line from Manchester, remembering the first conversation he’d had with Freitas. “He sort of made a private vow that one day he’d work with me. Then becoming the artistic director at Mugler, he was able to make that happen.”
Before the Channel 4 show, Hoyle had worked throughout the 90s in Manchester, becoming both a queer nightlife icon and a cabaret star. After “killing off” the Divine David during a live show at Streatham Ice Rink in 2000, Hoyle retired the moniker, returning to work in 2006 “under the name that was on my birth certificate.”
Now, thanks to Freitas’ teenage obsession, the artist has teamed up with Mugler on a series of short-form episodes which “casts an irreverent and incisive spotlight on the house’s enduring relationship with theatricality, camp, and transformation.” While wearing looks from Mugler’s SS26 pre-collection The Wardrobe of Identities, Hoyle waxes lyrical on topics as wide-ranging as “Public Transport”, “Birdwatching” and “Drinking Champagne”. For this eighth episode, premiered exclusively on Dazed, Hoyle tackles the high seas subject of going on cruise, and what one might wear on being invited to the captain’s deck.
Below, we catch up with Hoyle about working with the Mugler team, the runaway success of Heated Rivalry, and whether the Divine David would make it onto terrestrial TV today.
Hi David! How are you?
David Hoyle: Very well. I keep going, thank you. Very rainy here in Manchester today.
I was actually in Manchester last weekend, for one night only. But I want to go back when it’s not raining.
David Hoyle: Yeah, you must! There’s lots of lovely places to go to.
Where do you recommend going?
David Hoyle: Well, I recommend places like the New York, New York on Bloom Street. I love it there. And I love a place called the Goose as well. That’s very good.
I’ll check them out the next time I’m in town. But first of all I want to talk about this new Mugler series.
David Hoyle: Oh yes, it’s all very exciting.
How did that all come about?
David Hoyle: Well, they got in touch with my manager Tim. We had a Zoom meeting and I got to Miguel [Castro Freitas] which was wonderful. He’d sort of seen me when he was younger, when I used to do The Divine David Presents on Channel 4, and he was very taken with it, and he sort of made a private vow that one day he’d work with me. Then becoming the artistic director at Mugler, he was able to make that happen. So it was wonderful.
“Mugler have an amazing legacy and they’ve always had a sense of the theatrical and – dare I suggest – the camp” – David Hoyle
And why did you want to collaborate with the house of Mugler?
David Hoyle: Well, I like fashion very much. I like what they’ve created. They’ve got an amazing legacy and they’ve always had a sense of the theatrical and – dare I suggest – the camp. Also a sense of fun, which is very important, particularly now, because we’re living in such dark times.
How did you come up with the different topics for each episode? Was it a collaborative effort with Miguel?
David Hoyle: They gave me a lot of freedom with the project, so I was able to decide who I wanted to work with. I work very closely with the photographer, Lee Baxter, for years and years, so Lee and I were able to come up with ideas as to what would be a suitable occasion for a particular look. They just got crazier and crazier, really. It was a lot of fun coming up with them. The idea that you’d wear something like that for ornithology or whatever, I just found it quite amusing.
Talk me through ‘Episode VIII – Cruise’.
David Hoyle: Well, it was just the idea of going for a cruise, you know! Wearing something that was reasonably comfortable, a bit more casual. And also, to mention, Canada with the Canadian tuxedo. Of course, Canada is very much in the news at the moment – they’ve taken a lot of heat from Trump, and also Heated Rivalry has become a sensation. There’s all sorts going on, really. Canada seems to be the place to be at the moment, nice.
The episode was also an opportunity to suggest cruising from Portofino to Nova Scotia. When I mentioned Nova Scotia, I didn’t know that the author who wrote Heated Rivalry, Rachel Reid, actually lives in Nova Scotia, and is a very passionate Nova Scotian.
Was the topic of cruising meant to be a double entendre?
David Hoyle: Well, no, but I will understand if people see it that way. It wasn’t done deliberately! I can totally understand people seeing that because, you know, it is a look that people might adopt for cruising – the denim look.
Well it’s a fun concept either way.
David Hoyle: Have you ever been on a cruise, Elliot?
No, I haven’t personally.
David Hoyle: Well, years ago, I managed to get on the QE2. I was working at a pub, and they got some free tickets to go. I think it was three nights around the British Isles. Nobody wanted to go, so eventually they asked me and my friend if we’d like to, and we did. That was quite an experience.
What did you do on the cruise?
David Hoyle: We drank cocktails and we ate very well. I think we had a few ‘herbal cigarettes’, let’s put it that way. We decided to take our clothes off on the last night, running around the swimming pool. There were some hot tubs involved. We were cruising up the River Mersey. It was quite a contrast, you know, being on the QE2 and then [seeing] the various housing estates on the side of the Mersey.
“I did a show on Valentine’s Day, and I really wanted to give it a gothic feel. There’s sort of a morbid aspect to love” – David Hoyle
Tell me about putting together the looks for the different Mugler episodes.
David Hoyle: I was helped very much by the Mugler team in Paris. I also had a stylist, Liquorice Black, who made sure that the costumes were presented perfectly, so a lot of work went into them. I felt very privileged, actually, to wear them, because there’s a lot of soft engineering involved in how Mugler construct things. They’re very, very knowledgeable about how fabric falls and what you can do with it.
So the house of Mugler has gone through various stages of creative renewal. Obviously founded by Thierry Mugler, but then followed by creative directors like David Koma, Casey Cadwallader, and now Miguel. How important is it to be evolving like that?
David Hoyle: Always! I mean, it sounds like Doctor Who doesn’t it? With all the regeneration. And I love it. Why not? All of us need to embrace new things and grow and learn, and attract knowledge and sensitivity, and hopefully a bit of wisdom which we need at the moment. It’s a bit like the chrysalis, isn’t it? When the butterfly emerges, it’s such a beautiful experience.
What The Divine David wears in general is such an important part of the character building. Talk me through your fashion process?
David Hoyle: Well, I was very lucky when I was doing the Divine David – I worked very closely with a very talented person called Jackie Haynes, who went on to create a load of costumes and is now more known in the art world. And so I worked very closely with Jackie on the various looks for the Divine David in the past.
As things stand now, I did a show on Saturday, and that was Valentine’s Day, and I really wanted to give it a gothic feel. Because very often we put our hearts on the line, and it can go either way. There’s sort of a morbid aspect to love, a gothic aspect to it. Somebody very kindly gave me an old vintage dress in a seersucker fabric, and so I thought that was ideal. It put me in mind of Mrs Danvers in Rebecca. And of course, that’s a wonderful love story and a marvelous film.
By the end of the 90s, the Divine David was appearing on TVs across the nation on Channel 4. But if the character was created in 2026, do you think becoming a fixture on terrestrial television would even be possible?
David Hoyle: Oh, possibly not. Possibly not. I mean, that’s a very good question. I mean, it would be nice to get on television again, obviously. There’s so much to say at the moment. But I don’t know, I really couldn’t answer it one way or the other. Channel 4 was more open to more experimental stuff way back, but it’s all ups and downs. Everything changes.
How has being a performer changed since the 90s?
David Hoyle: Well, I killed off the Divine David at an ice show, at Streatham International Ice Arena in 2000. Then I had a break from performing for a number of years, and then I vowed when I came back, I’d do it under the name that was on my birth certificate. I thought, ‘well, you might as well use that name.’
But as a person, I’m still just a continuation. I’m alive – reasonably so – still interested in the same things” society, politics, film, television and fashion. The things that can bring us all together. At the moment, we really do all need to come together, because the people that are oppressing us, they’re only a minority. In the words of Percy Bysshe Shelley, who wrote a wonderful poem called ‘The Masque of Anarchy’, ‘We are many, they are few.’
