Rick Owens SS26

Paris Fashion Week is usually an exercise in polish and restraint. But on Wednesday night, as day two wrapped and a biblical storm cracked open the sky, all bets were off. Fashion’s finest sprinted through the city like sailors hunting for safe harbour. 

There was an apocalyptic energy hanging over the Palais de Tokyo by the time the bedraggled guests descended upon the Rick Owens SS26 show, a fitting atmosphere for what Rick had in store. Owens had transformed the space’s monumental fountain into something verging on the religious, equal parts runway, baptismal pool, and performance art installation.

The tension was broken by the arrival of Rick’s long time muse and right-hand man Tyrone Dylan. The Australian model-cum-designer, clad in towering kiss boots, clambered up a brutalist scaffold, staring out across the soaked crowd like he was looking for dry land.

Behind him, models descended ladders into the shallow water, wading slowly before scaling the dripping frame. Wet hair, wet boots, wet leather, the whole show appeared dangerous, sexy, and weirdly spiritual. In other words, textbook Rick Owens. 

The collection was a prologue to Owens’ new retrospective Temple of Love, now open at the Palais Galliera. Where most designers have responded to the current climate with escapism, Owens doubled down on the doom and dressed it in leather. Studded harnesses, slashed Tuscan jackets, and gargantuan flight coats formed a collection that looked ready for Berghain; or the set of 28 Years Later.

Despite the theatrics, there was a tenderness. Owens teamed up with TotalKoster’s Terry-Ann Frencken on a capsule of reconstructed knits. He also nodded to New York punk icons Suicide with a series of trashed denim and leather looks. All of it grounded the collection in a sense of memory and love, no matter how tough it looked on the surface. 

The tongue in cheek elements of his retrospective show us Rick is certainly not taking himself too seriously. Looking back at the glittering career that is in his rear view mirror must be a bizarre experience and humour seems to Rick’s way of coming to terms with it. 

Although the world may be looking for him to pass the torch, this collection and the retrospective show us that the work is far from over and his hold over the fashion industry is as strong as ever. 

So, in a week where most designers gave us fantasy, Rick Owens gave us reality; drenched, raw and rigged in leather. 

You can read the full article at: https://thecoldmagazine.co.uk/rick-owens-ss26/?fbclid=PAdGRleAMj9LdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABp89jCd8MkXXsWw8Yhuu3FUrO41HpJCtMN-ZbwtVgKNHQU0ceDETQxOJl9h6x_aem_KuqKaunbpkX2KzzY26Iqpw