“It’s Art”: Inside Laverne Cox’s Jaw-Dropping 500-Piece Vintage Mugler Collection

By now, we’re accustomed to seeing celebrities wearing incredible vintage looks on the red carpet. But few are likely to share the level of expertise – and enthusiasm – of Laverne Cox, whose museum-quality vintage Mugler collection now includes a staggering 500 pieces. “I started collecting about five years ago but my love for Mugler started 30 years ago, with [George Michael’s] ‘Too Funky’,” the actor tells Vogue. The music video – directed by Thierry Mugler himself – starred the likes of Linda Evangelista, Tyra Banks and Eva Herzigová clad in the designer’s signature bustiers, winged necklines and latex.

For Cox, though, it was Thierry Mugler’s immaculate tailoring that first drew her in. “I became obsessed with this jacket – I have it in red, purple and black,” she says, standing up to show me the hourglass cut of the autumn/winter 1988 blazer that she’s wearing. “This is such a good example of what a Mugler blazer does for the body, being a trans woman and not being very shapely. The construction, the architecture of it all, is really what excites me.”

Other prized pieces from Cox’s collection include a brown croco-style suit from Mugler’s Africa collection from spring/summer 1988, a purple suede and patent leather jacket featuring “scales”, which was worn by Iman down the autumn/ winter 1988 runway, and a similar multi-coloured jacket from spring/summer 1989. “I mean, just look at that – it’s just art,” Cox says, holding up the structured piece to her laptop.

It’s clear that Cox relishes tracking down rare pieces from Mugler’s extensive archives. Take the pale blue bustier she wore from the designer’s 1995 Cruise collection for the Renaissance premiere in LA in November, or the shimmering purple gown from the spring/summer 1989 collection that she wore on the Emmys red carpet earlier this month, sourced from Tab Vintage. “This dress was actually up for auction last year and I bid on it and lost it and was devastated,” she says. “When I saw it [again], I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ The dress was shown [on the runway] in silver and apparently this particular couture client commissioned it in purple. My understanding is that this is the only dress made in this colour, and there are only three, maybe four of these dresses in the world. It’s a dream come true.”

In a bid to track down these one-of-a-kind pieces, the actor has alerts set across a series of resale sites, from The RealReal and Vestiaire Collective to 1stDibs and eBay, as well as regularly stalking auction house websites. “It can get really competitive,” Cox laughs. “When pieces are iconic, they will be gone in like 10 minutes.” Luckily, she’s found that dealers and collectors are now approaching her directly, having seen her post about her collection online: “There’s this wonderful dude in Switzerland – he commented on one of my Instagram posts and he said ‘Oh, I have some pieces,’ so I DMed him.”

In fact, Cox’s collection has become so vast that she’s now rented the apartment across the hall in New York in order to display her archive. “A lot of my collection is in storage, but when I pull things out and put them on mannequins, it brings me so much joy and I was like, ‘I just need to have these pieces out,’” she explains. “It’ll be a sort of museum slash closet – a place where I can go and enjoy my collection.”

Luckily, fans will be able to see more of the actor’s extensive collection this awards season, as she continues to helm red carpet coverage for Live With E! at the Grammy Awards, People’s Choice Awards, SAGs and the Oscars. While wearing vintage on the red carpet might be all the rage now, it’s clear that Cox isn’t just tapping into a trend.

“I don’t care [if I’m on the] best-dressed lists,” she says. “So much of this is deeply personal. When I started dressing myself in middle school, I had no money and I went to Salvation Army and Goodwill; I bought vintage for a lot of my life. [Now] I’m going back to how I fell in love with dressing myself. This awards season, I really want to make myself happy.”