Set in a vast, almost pitch-black auditorium was an immense pool of water disguising the runway, with digital screens above depicting a hellish sky that flashed with lightening, red clouds, satellite shots of Earth, and then finally, a total eclipse. “It’s the blackest show I ever did,” said designer Demna Gvasalia.

This season, power dynamics shifted to the Church, commencing with an ominous classical soundtrack as models emerged in austere long black coats, splashing across the runway. “I had a lot of clerical wear in my research. I come from a country where the Orthodox religion has been so predominant,” Gvasalia said. “I went to Church to confess every Saturday. Back then, I remember looking at all these young priests and monks, wearing these long robes and thinking, ‘how beautiful.’”

After shapely all-black looks, rendered in everything from velvet to leather, was a resurrection of motifs from past seasons. There were the sculptural shoulders, now pointier and wider than ever, the floral and plissé dresses, the logomania sportswear, and the second-skin neoprene suits. Though varied in genre, their austere silhouettes and staunch repetition was Gvasalia’s way of saying “Fashion is my religion.”