September 30, 2016 |
Rick Owens was Grecian in drape. There was a regal element to it in the colour and shape, the abundance of fabric suggesting wealth. It feels almost monastic. Can we say it’s like they are being wrapped for a baptism? Preparing to dip their toe, or should that be immerse themselves in a pool of holy water, only to emerge reborn? Probably not, but we’ll go with it anyway. This was a lighter showing for Rick. He’s stepped away from the gothic undertones that usually infuse his collections. In colour at least. Rich purples and golden yellows mix with flowing white and pale greys suggesting a lightening of touch. The silhouette too, seems looser this time round, freer in movement with long fringing and swathes of chiffon billowing in a sense behind the models as they walk the runway. Obviously all of Rick’s signatures are here. The length, the drapery, swathes of fabric wrapped and twisted around the body for volume. Thee wrapping seems ad hoc somehow, giving a sense of model, pre catwalk exit, simply being made to roll herself in a length of gauze say and then pushed out for the world to see. Obviously this is not to be tried at home, unless you want to resemble more a mummy unearthed a few hundred years post burial. In the hands of Rick though, the result is, as always, uninimitable.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
