Lancaster University: Lancaster professor works with Paris fashion house and John Galliano on game-changing show

A Lancaster University professor was at Haute Couture Week in Paris to help direct a ground-breaking new show for a luxury fashion house and its creative director John Galliano.

Professor Andrew Quick, of the University’s Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts collaborated with Parisian haute couture house Maison Margiela.

Last week in Paris Professor Quick, the co-artistic director of theatre company imitating the dog, provided text and direction for Cinema Inferno, a ground-breaking new show.

This was based on an original concept by couturier and creative director John Galliano, for Maison Margiela’s ‘Artisanal 2022’ collection, presented last week at the famous bi-annual Haute Couture Week.

Cinema Inferno has its roots in American road movies and tells the story of a pair of desperate young lovers on the run, driving across a mythical American landscape, pursued by a group of faceless gunslingers from a bygone era.

As they drive across the desert into the burning sun, they seek shelter in an abandoned picture house, only to find themselves thrown into the celluloid worlds of the films on screen.

As they fall though the violent landscapes of B movies, westerns, gothic horrors, and road movies, there is no escape and they are condemned by their crimes to be on the run for eternity.

Throughout Cinema Inferno integrated live cameras and projection created a film that was made on stage before the audience’s eyes.

The ‘performers’, including the models, used found objects, miniature sets, and giant screens to create a dynamic piece of live cinema.

Professor Quick said: “Working with John Galliano and Maison Margiela has been a genuine collaboration and last week’s reaction to Cinema Inferno has been amazing.

“The idea was to make something extraordinary and ground-breaking that has never been done on the official Paris Haute Couture Calendar.

“Working with Pete Brooks, Simon Wainwright, and the rest of the imitating dog team on this project has enabled us to stretch our creativity in new and exciting ways and we have learned an enormous amount about two significant creative industries and how they can collaborate to create such a special event.

“It has been a pleasure and a privilege to collaborate with John and Maison Margiela on this truly game-changing show.”

Cinema Inferno was staged at Palais de Chaillot, Paris on 6 July 22, for Haute Couture week and was filmed for live streaming by Sodium Films. The stream is now available to view online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GI068lnT-M

imitating the dog have been making ground-breaking work for theatres and other spaces for 23 years. Pete Brooks, Andrew Quick and Simon Wainwright are the artistic directors and their work, which fuses live performance with digital technology, has a unique reputation in the UK, Europe and internationally.

Maison Margiela was founded in 1988 by Martin Margiela. The Paris-based house is synonymous with unconventional principles and a philosophy in which deconstruction and heritage create designs showcasing fashion as an art of meaning. John Galliano was named Creative Director in 2014.

Vogue magazine said of the show: “The Maison Margiela show set a new precedent for the fashion show format.”

It added: “Brought to life in collaboration with the Leeds-based theatre troupe imitating the dog, Galliano’s vision for the future of shows was a mind-blowing wake-up call for all the promises fashion made itself during the pandemic.

“Rather than returning to the comfort zone of the runway, Galliano went where no designer has gone before: real change! He dreamed up a format that reinvented the fashion show without ever compromising the attention to the clothes and gave his audiences an unforgettable experience.”