BALTIMORE — Baltimore filmmaker John Waters has always been a particularly fashion-forward Filth Editor, sporting creations by the iconoclastic French label Comme des Garcons.

So it is perhaps, err, fitting, that the director of “Pink Flamingoes” is performing in two commercials that will be released this holiday season: One for fashion house Yves Saint Laurent, and the second for the upscale department store chain Nordstrom.

“I was excited to do these commercials,” he told The Baltimore Sun. “Basically the reason I get these jobs is because I used to be a puppeteer and I can do all the voices.”

The YSL campaign consists of half a dozen moody videos directed by Nadia Lee Cohen, and based on the early 20th century French author Marcel Proust’s seminal, seven-volume masterpiece, “Remembrance of Things Past.”

The videos feature such well-known actors as Waters, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Chloë Sevigny and bear such enigmatic titles as “Love,” “Desire” and “Togetherness.” Though the Saint Laurent label is never mentioned, Waters and the other performers wear the designer’s clothing.

Waters appears in three videos. And, while Proust’s weighty meditation about memory isn’t known for its humor, Waters couldn’t resist putting his own spin on his characters.

For instance, in the minute-long video titled ‘Dreaming” Waters is shown nodding off in a nightclub next to his wife (Gainsbourg) while a sultry female singer croons into the microphone, “A little dreaming is dangerous.”

When Waters awakens, the singer and his wife have switched places — and the look on Waters’ face is priceless.

Waters also will be part of the “Wonder All the Way” campaign that will transform Nordstrom’s flagship store in Manhattan into “The Blizz on 57th Street.”

Waters and actress Fran Drescher will perform more than a dozen imaginary characters. Waters’ roles include Pigeonthia, a fortune-telling pigeon; a burnt-out star named Dimmy; the department store cone, Connor; Fritz the Friendly Pretzel; “Smolder” the smoke-stack; and Drizzle, the Anxious Umbrella, who complains to anyone who will listen.

The latter, Waters said, was his favorite character.

“I always like the grouchy ones,” he said. “Umbrellas are always getting left behind. And that is a situation I can relate to.”

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