Thinking of Porterville – the small town where he grew up – as having a bleak and intolerant cultural climate comparable to current times, Rick Owens’ AW24 collection sought to provide an alternative. Showing in his home, the same brutalist space where he began selling his collections 25 years ago, he described the decision as “a respectful move in observance of the barbaric times through which we are living”. It was intimate, honest and welcoming.
Through a small cohort of fashion’s elite, models slithered and stomped. Not everyone was lucky enough to attend; Owens acknowledges this though, musing about how what was intended as a “respectful restraint” may have excluded a community that would have used the show to “gather together for connection and solace”. “I might have to rethink this,” he writes. But, in the spirit of community, some of those who walked were friends of the designer, and for the collection, collaboration was key.
Steven Raj Bhaskaran of Fecal Matter and Russian performance artist Gena Marvin walked, giving Owens’ garments an extraterrestrial touch. Inflatable boots were made with London-based designer Straytukay and Kiss Boots were reinterpreted by Leo Prothman. Matisse Di Maggio made jackets and pants out of discarded bike tires and there were durable Bonotto-crafted textiles throughout.
Other models were wrapped in gargantuan duvet coats, sported knitted spacesuits and shaggy jumpsuits, or wore treated Japanese denim that appeared cracked and creased, peeling in places. The dark prince described it best: “Collection proportions are grotesque and inhuman in a howling reaction to some of the most disappointing human behaviour we will witness in our lifetime. But there is the eternal utopian hope of someplace better.”
Photography courtesy of Rick Owens.
