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Arguably one of the most memorable shows of the Fall 2022 Couture shows, Maison Margiela presented the first show stitched together with fashion, theater, and digital. “The idea of how we all felt through this pandemic, and being brought to our knees by the power of mother nature.” John Galliano, creative director of the house, collaborated with Cinema Inferno, “the multidisciplinary fantastically-costumed American psycho-drama of dreams and nightmares that played out on stage, screens, and livestream from the Palais de Chaillot.” (Vogue Runway) Galliano’s model muses lip-synced to a script following the despair of young lovers on the run. The preview consisted of clothes laid out, waiting to embody the bloody, romantic tale in fragile whooshes of pastel tulle and brutally-cut tailoring that takes a twist on 1950s haute couture and the Americana prom scene. “The effect of the weather, the sea, the moon, the elements, started to play on my psychology.”

The show continues to show the bad guys, who barged in with guns, in sandstorm-weathered coats with micro beading. “Because this,” said Galliano, “is haute couture. The highest form of dressmaking!” (Vogue Runway) Galliano has known his way to the highest form of dressmaking since his time at Christian Dior. His ideas have been evolving from the ‘20s to the ‘50s and the deconstruction and reconstruction of period clothing. The dark and inescapable trauma and violence behding the sequences of clothes - of nurse’s coats in the mint-greens of hospital scrubs, the watermelon poufs of the evil mother’s gown, the diaphanous trapeze dresses and abstracted prom dresses constructed from several gowns sewn together. “Films that have had a huge impact on the man I am today. A Streetcar Named Desire, Natural Born Killers, Suddenly Last Summer.” But beneath that runs a more personal thread. It’s no coincidence that Arizona, where the performance was notionally set, is the state where Galliano underwent rehab in 2011. (Vogue Runway) The recurring nightmares of sin, sex, dath, and parental abuse have impacted Galianno within his designs, such as the black mirror dress symbolizing the psychological impossibility of fully escaping memory. “Because, as you see in the show, our protagonists keep falling into these dreams. The whole thing is based on a loop. An endless loop.” One of his post personal collections he has hand-made, the emotionally-driven material experimentation came with hours and hours of dialogue.