For its Fall/Winter 1995 collection, Maison Margiela held a nightmarish presentation in a most unconventional setting: a circus tent in Paris' Bois de Boulogne park. After a season's absence, Margiela returned to the runway show format, adding his own twist by having models walk amongst the audience and eventually into the nearby bleachers. Although masks were introduced in previous collections, for this season in particular they played a prominent role, with each model completely masked creating total anonymity. Like all great Margiela collections, the focus was first and foremost the clothes.
The most distinctive aspect of this show was Margiela's use of saturated fuchsias, a color palette reminiscent of 1980s circus costumes. Though color was not unheard of at the Maison, it was still a relatively rarity, and never played a dominant role in any collection thus far. With the Fall/Winter collection, however, Margiela proved the house could do more than make intricate clothes in a muted color palette. As far as actual clothing, the collection consisted of an abundance of mohair knits, removable opera sleeves (which themselves doubled as styling separates), crushed velvet dresses and-most memorably-the now iconic painted Tabi boots. Accessories, apart from pony hair belts, were kept to a minimum. For the finale, the models finally removed their masks and entered holding red balloons, a perfect theatrical ending for the spectacle of a collection.