BEAUTY: Clothing--Rick Owens

Rick Owens says he has been in a doom and gloom head space for the last several collections. For this Fall-Winter '17-'18 collection he titled GLITTER, his intent was to lighten up. But these are not light times--at all. "I wanted to kind of get away from the doom. My last few seasons have been about doom: How do you negotiate things, and things changing, and handling that gracefully. But . . . this cycle ends up being a continuation of the other cycle..." Owens said. "You know, I wanted it to be voluptuous and flamboyant but then I look at it: It definitely is about strapping yourself in for a bumpy ride."

Owens has been playing with bulk and volume for the last several seasons as well and we have a continuation of that theme as well. These moving sculptures are examples of how a designer manifests ideas in three dimensions, in space, with fabric and leather. Now, before anyone says to me, "But Jeff, these outfits are ridiculous. Where are you going to wear something like that, to the supermarket," let me point out that the styling for a fashion show is almost always radically different from how the individual pieces look hanging on a hanger in a retail store--and how individuals are going to wear them. Owens drapes jackets and coats around his models. He lets the tops of one-piece leather jumpsuits hang and fall in a puddle at the waist. These are not necessarily the way anyone will wear these pieces. Owens is showing us his inspiration. But if you were to walk into Selfridge's and see, for example, a single black and gold and white striped leather coat, or a suit jacket with long knit sleeves, or even a single green leather jumpsuit, well, then, that would be just fine. And as an aside, why are you so interested in what I am wearing to the supermarket?

https://www.rickowens.eu/en/US