I always find the theatrics lie in the presentation and props - make-up, hair, boxes as hats, balloons, runway, etc. - rather than the design, which has always been predictably high-tech goth. In that sense, I don't miss the theatrics, they're more gimmicky to me, to turn up the heat and attract publicity. The clothes are otherwise quite similar, well constructed and coherent, not bad for someone so young but not innovative either. Better than contemporaries like Giles. Since Rick Owens is his mentor, I won't be surprised if Pugh picks up on his aesthetics and methods, mixed with a lot of leatherised Issey Miyake, though Owen's collections have a profound poetry that's missing in Pugh's rather in-your-face approach.