March 7, 2025 |
Shopping and wardrobing are not words we immediately associate with Rick Owens whose operatic aesthetic leans in to gothic high drama on the catwalk. Yet, as anyone whose partaken knows, many Owens pieces are wearable, comfortable and almost sporty in their slip-on ease.
“It’s a constant, trying to keep that balance of shock and wonder, but you can’t let people dismiss you as just being out of the question,” said the designer who used his show to remind people of the added value a Rick piece brings to any wardrobe. He called the show Concordians and dedicated it to his factory in the small Italian town where his pieces are made.
And it was full of covetable Rick pieces – the kind that will live in your wardrobe for years. Oversized leather bomber jackets, some with peplum hems in lieu of elastic, were lined, not in silk, but leather, which the designer described as “deliciously fetishistic, but discreet.” They were inspired by his sold-out Rimowa collab of leather lined carry-ons, (models carried the small vanity case versions on the catwalk), which were, in turn inspired by the 1930s interior designer Jean Michel Frank, “who I find an ever ending well of aesthetic fuel”). Next on the must-have list? Stand-up collared coats, bringing drama to the everyday. And what about Rick Owens hoodie, made with thin strips of natural rubber, set on the bias – a kinky take on pleats.
Less everyday, but certainly dramatic were leather lined chaps and coats embellished with laser-cut leather fringes woven together in a chainmail construction. They were made in collaboration with the Parisian designer Victor Clavelly. He also worked on the porcupine quill-like leather dresses that provide major wow factor. It wouldn’t be Rick without that emotion, because his reality is always going to be fuelled by a heroic combination of the freaky and the fascinating. Drama and beauty. Rick redux.
Photography by Christina Fragkou.
