October 3, 2025 |
At Rick Owens’ SS26 show, models trekked down a massive scaffolding staircase before trudging through a calf-high pool of water at the Palais de Tokyo. The whole thing felt like a baptism in Owens’ world – dangerous in theory, but in practice? Hardly a single wobble. The Owens cult is unshakable, even in 12cm thigh-high hoof boots – because the higher the heel the closer to heaven, right?
The collection, named Temple, picked up the mood with clothes that swung between toughness and fragility. Skirts and dresses came draped in recycled nylon, whipped up into raw, industrial silhouettes, while others shimmered under sequins painstakingly applied by Parisian latex artist Matisse Di Maggio. Cropped trenches came with matching long vests – like armour you could style two ways – layered with candy-hued flight jackets or little leather bikers with dripping fringe sleeves.
Leather itself got the full Rick treatment: slashed, spiked, fringed to porcupine-like excess and generally destroyed, but made to sway beautifully, courtesy of London’s Straytukay. Underneath, sheer layers clung in clean architectural lines – sexy in suggestion but stern in execution. And those shoulders? Reduced. This season they were hard, shiny, metallic little sculptures, holding up chiffon that drooped and swept like melted candlewax. Bras, courtesy of a collab with Paris lingerie brand Livy, peeked through.
Set to a jagged soundtrack rooted in Basstrologe’s Somebody to Love, mixed by Jeff Judd, Temple felt like a declaration of tenacity: tough clothes for tough times, but always with a flicker of glamour.
Photography by Christina Fragkou.
