The Maison Margiela Fall 2023 RTW collection was a fierce, urgent reveling in the subcultural spirit of the ’70s and early ’80s in London.

A couple of models were clutching them with their handbags as they lurched down the runway, as if in a hurry to get somewhere. In some of their hats, fancifully collaged from trash bags and scraps of tulle, were cockades made from chopped-up flyers. Suddenly, was that an echo of the French Revolutionaries—the Incroyables.

Girls were dashing along in Galliano’s ingeniously wrapped pencil skirts—the sexy ’50s rocker style, mixed up in the layers and layers of Galliano’s spins on ’50s tulle ballgowns, his huge, swinging opera coats, and chopped-up Americana. There were Western-type jackets with Mickey Mouse plackets, Hawaiian prints.

Watch backstage at he Maison Margiela by John Galliano Fall 2023 runway show.