It was a wardrobe for “barbaric contradictory times,” said Rick Owens of his AW21 men’s collection. Named Gethsemane after the garden that Jesus prayed in the night before the crucifixion, his show played out before a domed church in Venice. As the show notes talked about conservatism careering off the rails, unhinged male energy, and of “male suppressed rage on every side of the moral divide”, Owens’ models emerged from clouds of dry ice in their fantastic looks.
They stalked the empty streets in ‘biblical’ hooded robes, platform waders over ‘tighty whities’, twisting knits made of recycled cashmere and skin-tight leather bodysuits. Owens mixed audacious silhouette with the idea of protection. Jackets zipped up over faces, many models wore masks, and those billowing robes could double as duvets.
Fans of Owens’ dark glamour will be winding themselves into a frenzy over the two covetable collaborations in the show. Owens has created a mutant version of the classic Converse baseball boot, and has produced a range of 16oz, black warp and weft, hand-loomed denim pieces with Japan’s Yamaashi Orimono. Very rare. Very cult. Very specialist. Expect some suppressed male rage from Owens’ super fans if they can’t get their hands on them, come the winter.
Photography courtesy of Owenscorp.
