"The collection kicked off with reinterpreted naked dresses... before quickly taking a turn into extreme shapes that hinted at body modifications and prosthetics..."

"Fabrics were tattered and gray, part-Dickens and part-surrealist fantasy. Next came translucent dresses in sheer washes of blurred, rainbow colors revealing corsets underneath, the models’ forms obscured by layers of intensely light fabric.... What does it mean to go from a naked dress to a tattered broken creature—and back again to a youthful, doll-like figure?... [T]hose heavy, tattered pieces were actually featherlight, constructed through milletrage—'a filtrage of a mille-feuille of organza and felt under a wool crêpe printed with a trompe l’oeil of the texture of a classic gentleman’s cloth'....  'Seamlace'... refers to garments constructed entirely from encrusted fragments of lace, while 'emotional cutting' is 'a new form of cutting which imbues a garment with the unconscious gestures that shape our expressions.'"

From "Maison Margiela Closes Couture Week With a Transcendent Artisanal Collection/John Galliano put on a runway show filled with fantasy" (W).

Many striking photographs at the link. Super arty!

Brighter, clearer photographs at the New York Times piece, here, where Vanessa Friedman says: "At the end, the audience members were so overwrought they didn’t just clap, they stamped their feet hard enough to make the floorboards shake. It has been awhile since anyone had experienced a world-building show quite like it. It looked tortured, in a way that is rarely considered acceptable anymore.... Once upon a time such fashion theater was Mr. Galliano’s signature. But between the transformation of houses into global brands and his own drug- and alcohol-fueled antisemitic self-immolation, exile and penitent return at Margiela, it had begun to seem like a thing of the past. A relic of an earlier age of histrionic self-indulgence of which he was the cautionary tale. Is it time for reconsideration?"

Ah! Here's the video:

I found that at the Bazaar article by Tara Gonzalez, which ends:

Some models held themselves in their own embrace; others careened their arms like bird wings. And in the audience, too, there was movement. Instead of the usual stone-cold pursing of lips, grins slid against cheeks and feet beat against the floor in excitement. At home, I made the same expressions. Fashion hasn’t felt like this for a very long time. Let’s hope this is the start of something new, and not just a quick nostalgic dip into a past long gone.