Gareth Pugh's Latest Fashion Film Screens Like an Outtake From Twin Peaks

By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd | September 19, 2017 | 6:50pm

Entertainment

Gareth Pugh, who is as much an artist as any living fashion designer, decided to present his Spring collection in short-film form, with the clothes less the focus than the union of two otherwordly creatures via clay, their onenness a product of both agony and ecstasy.

It seems to be about the total absorption of another human’s essence, and Pugh interpreted that through frenzied dance, the hems of gowns licked by flames, and industrial, cage-like bodysuits that consumed the body whole. As a video, it feels like an outtake from one of the more experimental episodes of Twin Peaks: The Return, with the eyeless lady yelping and the space between heaven and hell steaming like a tea kettle. (That reminds me… did we ever figure out the meaning of that glass box in the first episode?) Like Lynch, Pugh has an eye for the grotesque, and a knack for seeing beauty in the extreme. It’s a challenging film, and the clothes are too; as ever, I love them.