First off, he did not show in his usual Palais de Tokyo venue he has used for many years now. In the summer, he mounts shows outside around the massive fountain at the Palais, and in winter, often shows inside, either in an underground Brutalist style basement area or in a glass-windowed space. Instead, he opened up his own home he shares with Michèle Lamy. Incredibly personal.
Speaking before the show, Owens talked about plane travel and walking through the huge retail areas of modern airports: they are all simply homogenous luxury malls now. "We are herded through that gauntlet of a very specific beauty and aspiration: of a certain kind of sexuality, a certain kind of face shape, a certain kind of body shape—and it’s unattainable. I call that standard 'airport beauty.' And I oppose it. And when I wear my platform boots as I go through the airport it is to oppose airport beauty. This is my resistance...That standard is dishonest...but this is a fully resolved Rick Owens experience. It can’t get any more honest or authentic than this. And that was my basic urge this season: to be sincere. I’m trying to participate in and contribute to all alternative beauties: to bombastic beauty, sometimes, but also kind and soft beauty."
Owens titled this collection "Porterville," another highly personal gesture. He grew up in Porterville, California, a place Owens refers to as a brutal, judgmental, intolerant community, as many smaller towns can be. His time there is not remembered fondly. I have my own version--when my family arrived in California from the East coast, the town we moved to was, while not as rural as Porterville, just as intolerant and judgmental and my early years there are not remembered fondly either. Finally, the soundtrack for this show is the Bowie track "Warszawa" from his incredible 1977 release "Low," an album from his Berlin Trilogy (my favorite Bowie albums). In the show notes, Owens mentions this track ("bleakness and yearning for dignity") and I feel similarly about it--it holds tremendous meaning for me. The song and the entire album was an anchor and a doorway to another head space for both of us.
I usually talk about the specifics of a collection, and while I could talk about the inflatable boots taking the place of the classic Owens Kiss boot, and the return of the knotted ball tops, I am sort of overcome with the force and meaning of it all, and his ability to translate such emotions into three dimensional objects. Here, below, are Owens' own words about the specifics of the collection but also about the feelings and ideas around it that overlap not only with the past but our dark present as well, full of, as Owens calls it, "some of the most disappointing human behavior we will witness in our lifetime."
WE ARE SHOWING IN MY HOME AND WORKING COMPOUND WHERE WE BEGAN SELLING OUR COLLECTIONS 25 YEARS AGO — A RESPECTFUL MOVE IN OBSERVANCE OF THE BARBARIC TIMES THROUGH WHICH WE ARE LIVING.
BUT WHAT I HAD INTENDED AS A RESPECTFUL RESTRAINT MAY END UP EXCLUDING A COMMUNITY THAT MIGHT HAVE USED MY SHOW TO GATHER TOGETHER FOR CONNECTION AND SOLACE. I MIGHT HAVE TO RETHINK THIS.
IN THE SPIRIT OF COMMUNITY, I HAVE INVITED SOME OF MY FAVORITE UTOPIAN CREATIVES WHO LIVE THEIR AESTHETIC DEFIANTLY AND COMPLETELY.
INFLATED RUBBER PULL-ON STRETCH BOOTS ARE A COLLAB WITH STRAYTUKAY, A LONDON DESIGNER WHO EXPERIMENTS IN ARCHITECTURAL VOLUMES AND HAS A GIFT FOR TECHNICAL CONSTRUCTION.
I SAW A CHEEKILY IMPROVISED VERSION OF MY KISS BOOT ONLINE AND COULDN’T HELP ASKING LONDON DESIGNER LEO PROTHMAN PERMISSION TO PRODUCE THEM.
SOME JACKETS AND PANTS ARE MADE OUT OF RECYCLED DISCARDED BICYCLE TIRES BY MATISSE DI MAGGIO, A MEMBER OF THE PARISIAN BDSM COMMUNITY WHO SPECIALIZES IN RUBBER GEAR.
I ALSO ASKED STEVEN FROM FECAL MATTER AND GENA MARVIN TO WALK OUR RUNWAY:
STEVEN AND HANNAH OF FECAL MATTER HAVE LONG BEEN COMMITTED TO BALANCING OUT FORCES OF CONDEMNING JUDGEMENT WITH THEIR EXQUISITELY CHEERFUL DEPRAVITY — SOMETHING I ADMIRE AND BELIEVE IN AND TRY TO DO IN MY OWN SMALL WAY.
GENA’S OFTEN DANGEROUS COMMITMENT TO HER AESTHETIC IN HER NATIVE RUSSIA IS RECORDED IN A BEAUTIFULLY MOVING AND STIRRING DOCUMENTARY BY FILMMAKER AGNIIA GALDANOVA.
COLLECTION PROPORTIONS ARE GROTESQUE AND INHUMAN IN A HOWLING REACTION TO SOME OF THE MOST DISAPPOINTING HUMAN BEHAVIOR WE WILL WITNESS IN OUR LIFETIME.
BUT THERE IS THE ETERNAL UTOPIAN HOPE OF SOMEPLACE BETTER.
KNIT SPACE SUITS ARE RENDERED IN RECYCLED CASHMERE, ALPACA, OR MERINOS, AS WELL AS TURBO-PLY SHROUDS AND HOODIES.
SHAGGY JUMPSUITS AND CAPES ARE MADE FROM HEAVYWEIGHT FELT MADE WITH THE LONGEST ALPACA FIBRES ON A SILK WARP, WHICH IS WASHED, FELTED AND THEN BRUSHED OUT.
13OZ JAPANESE DENIM IS TREATED WITH LAYERS OF WAX AND FOIL THAT ARE PRESSED, WASHED, AND TUMBLED TO CREATE THE FINAL CRACKED AND PEELED MEGACRUST LOOK. ALL OUR DENIMS ARE TREATED IN AN ITALIAN WASH HOUSE IN VENETO THAT PRODUCES IN SMALLER TREATMENT BATHS TO REDUCE WATER WASTE AND UTILIZE A WATER PURIFYING PROCESS THAT ENABLES THEM TO RECYCLE A PORTION OF THE WATER USED. ALL OF OUR DENIM WASHES ARE ZDHC CERTIFIED.
CARGO JUMPSUITS, CARGO TUNICS AND CARGOBOOTS ARE MADE IN A 1,5MM THICK VEG TANNED AND WASHED CALF LEATHER FINISHED USING ONLY NATURAL WAXES. VEG TANNING MEANS ONLY VEGETAL AND NATURAL TANNINS ARE USED IN THE PROCESS OF TANNING AND PRESERVING THE LEATHER.
A LIGHTER WEIGHT OF THIS LEATHER IS USED FOR BOMBASTICALLY SCULPTURAL DUVET JACKETS AND COATS.
ITERATIONS OF OUR STOOGES BIKER JACKET FROM OUR MADE IN JAPAN CAPSULE ARE FEATURED IN SUPER HEAVYWEIGHT HIDES TANNED IN HIMEJI, HYÕGO PREFECTURE, AND SEWN IN ATSUGI, KANAGAWA PREFECTURE.
WE ALSO CONTINUE OUR CAPSULE COLLECTIONS WITH BONOTTO, A 4TH GENERATION TEXTILE MILL FOUNDED IN 1912 SITUATED JUST BELOW THE PREALPS IN VENETO, ITALY. THIS SEASON THE MATERIALS ARE RESISTANT AND DURABLE. HEAVY CORDURA NYLON, UTILITARIAN WOOL CANVAS, AND COTTON WHIPCORD, ALL MADE TO LAST.
I HAVE INCLUDED OUR LONGTIME STAPLE GEOBASKETS, BUT NOW INFLATED TO A LOUDER PROPORTION.
THE FIRST TIME I HEARD BOWIE’S WARZSAWA WAS AT A STUDENT DANCE THEATRE REHEARSAL AT THE PORTERVILLE COMMUNITY COLLEGE IN 1977. THE BLEAKNESS AND YEARNING FOR DIGNITY OF THAT SONG SPOKE TO ME THEN AS IT SPEAKS TO ME NOW.
I REMEMBER THE SMALL BRUTALITIES OF A SENSITIVE CHILDHOOD IN A JUDGEMENTAL COMMUNITY. JUST AN AMATEUR VERSION OF THE BRUTALITY WE SEE HUMAN NATURE CAPABLE OF.
https://www.rickowens.eu/
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