Across huge screens, actors Robert Pattinson and Gwendoline Christie recited T.S. Eliot’s seminal 1922 work The Waste Land, one of Kim Jones’ favourites from his incredible collection of rare books.

Accompanied by a live orchestra, the actor’s spoken words left clues to Kim Jones’ thinking this season: themes of water, time, and renewal. “Flux, movement, ease and fluidity are central,” read the show notes. “Models absorb the lessons of the past and apply them to the present and future.”

Within this mindset, Jones sent out models in beautifully soft and easeful silhouettes, with lines draping and swooping like calm waters. Wide, voluminous trousers pooled around legs alongside off-the-shoulder tailoring and highland knits. Skirts furthered the Scottish tones, here designed with straps flowing behind. Jackets crafted like buoyancy aids, fisherman-style yellow jackets and welly-like boots hit the runway as Pattinson and Christie pined for water to cleanse the dry landscape of Eliot’s Waste Land.

Yves Saint Laurent was also cited by Jones, referring to when, in 1958, the designer took the helm of the Parisian house at just 21 after the passing of Christian Dior, becoming the youngest couturier in history. Shapes reflected those of Saint Laurent, who famously abandoned Dior’s cinched waists for something more free-flowing. That sensual femininity carried across to menswear, while a sailor top from the archive was directly referenced, reworked in cavalry twill and elongated in reference to a fisherman’s smock.

Jones’ collection told an epic story layered with tales of past, present and future.