Rick Owens’s AW25 men’s collection was a tribute to a life of deliberate isolation and creative discipline. Dubbed Concordians, it set out to pay homage to Owens’s 22 years of travelling to the brand’s factory in Concordia, Italy. A small, industrial town, he and his team would decamp there to live in a “kind of studious isolation” he pens in the show notes, recounting how it seems to him that that “cloistered” life was what it took, and perhaps takes, to “be able to focus on reaching for something weird and wonderful.” He recalls sleeping on the sofa in his office and in “no-frills serial killer” hotel rooms. Always travelling light, he upgraded his carry-on with a bronzed Rimowa collaboration teased during the show, lined in black leather and able to fit everything he needs for a month of work.
Weird and wonderful, the collection stepped out into the salons of Palais de Tokyo to Bowie’s Heroes – the French, German, and English versions. Models wore necklaces featuring cow fur luggage tags, thermals in FSC-certified wool/viscose jersey, and chain-linked skirts and fringe boots in laser-cut heavyweight Groppone cow leather in collaboration with Victor Clavelly. Some pieces featured all-over frilling in natural rubber by Parisian rubber specialist Matisse di Maggio, while others included hand-dyed indigo Crosta suede trousers and loose-fitting jeans treated with layers of bronze foil for a crusty texture.
Elsewhere, dramatic dracu-collared jackets, sharply flared trousers and architectural boots evoked a familiar gothic elegance. Shredded jeans in organic Japanese denim and heavy wool capes, zipped and harnessed in a nod to industrial romanticism, were unmistakably Rick.
A reflection on minimalism, travel and making choices that count, it was enough to make anyone dream of living with less but in the most extraordinary way possible.
Photography by Christina Fragkou.
