PFW: Complexities of magnificence at Rick Owens

What are the bounds of typical gown and the way can we originate new concepts from the periphery? It’s questions like these that will present the portal into the thoughts of Rick Owens, a designer whose work consciously and persistently challenges the norm. His garments sit on the reducing fringe of style and so command wearers to push the envelope and comply with the propulsive power of his designs—wherever they make take them.

At present, on the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Owens was preoccupied with the state of the world, rife with contradictions. His fall 2023 assortment reduce by way of the veneer of the picture-perfect life many designers attempt to evoke of their clothes: antidotes to the macro and micro encounters with chaos in our on a regular basis lives. As an alternative, Owens confirmed inflated shrugs, cropped cowl neck sweaters and pillow-like poufs that encircled the physique, proffering protecting cocoons to climate a world crammed with unknowns. A sequence of black opening seems set a sombre tone however graduated into a set that felt decidedly festive—right here have been the aforementioned contradictions Owens delivered to gentle—with inflatable iterations, plus coats and robes, in silver, lime inexperienced and pink sequins.

“I do know I’m generally known as darkish,” Owens acknowledged to Vogue.com. “I feel no, I’m simply reasonable and I’m acknowledging the wonder and horror of the world. There are some folks that want one thing extra sugar-coated, and that’s wonderful, I don’t criticise that. However I want one thing with extra nuance.” It’s definitely a becoming description for this assortment, the place Owens veered from one excessive to the subsequent. For instance, light blue and washed inexperienced balloon jackets-cum-skirts felt playful and relaxed, however have been sharply counterbalanced by capes with shoulder pads befitting Dracula, feminised due to shredded Bordeaux trims with matching sequins.

Elsewhere, Owens refreshed his typical body-con attire and skirts, this time in recycled cashmere. These signified one other facet of the spectrum and felt extra wearable, simply imagined beneath the less complicated coats he confirmed in chocolate brown and gray or the sequinned capes in electrical pink and silver, ought to one really feel dramatically inclined. As for the seems that have been barely out of left area, their editorial enchantment was apparent and, even when functionally speculative, their function theoretically sound—designers have an obligation not solely to encourage us however defend us too, come what might.