Rick Owens is not wearing underwear.
He's the Californian in him, he said. Never mind that Mr. Owens, 63, has lived in Paris for most of his adult life. Its coastal freshness is hard to shake.
“I just wear socks and shorts,” the designer said in his still-guileless Cali drawl after Thursday's men's runway show.
Why exactly did Mr. Owens mention his mentability? The one that saw him take things back to make a claim on this stunning collection. (That's stripback, not stripdown.
“This was a basic show,” Owens said. It opened with a set of long johns, extended into a melton coat and a Spartan white parka. Basic, right?
Well, for those who haven't witnessed Mr. Owens' intergalactic Gothic magic, these are going to be some pretty unorthodox basics. Yes, the zip-front melton overcoat is subdued (this is executive wear, Owens style), but the leather jacket crumples to the belly button, those long johns are paired with a peck-high crop top, and Mr. Owens' muse, model Tyrone Dylan Sussman.
“A beautiful body is more exciting than expensive clothes,” said Owens, a dedicated gym person. (In another life, Mr. Owens might have been Billy Blanks, Te Bogai, a run for his money. Just a lazy pig.
Other ingenious Owens flourishes would have been fundamental only on Planet Zod. It's reminiscent of a swinging car wash brush, with raised strands that seem to have the texture of fossil duct tape and the texture of a boot of billowing strands.
“I want sophistication and simplicity, but I also want moments of madness,” Owens said. do you want to be angry? A robe kisses his ears, which he called “draccollared” in his show notes, peeking into the collar of his jacket. (Mr. Owens has written some wonderfully Seussian news releases, in addition to everything else.)
“I've always loved that heavy metal Dracula charm,” he said. The sloping, upright collar gave the model the image of Bela Largosi attending a kissing concert. But the designer assured me that when folded, “they end up looking kind of normal.”
However, it is not usually something that is popular with Owens consumers. The disciples who filled his shows and brought out their most beloved Owens inventions are proof of this.
In the front row of this sat British singer FKA Twigs, wearing a whimsical leather jacket and thigh-high brown boots, and Starr Owens shopper Dave Chappell, wearing a pair of sleeves. puff and black leather flares. (It's sometimes curious that Mr. Chappell has become increasingly polarizing, since he's started dressing like the frontman of a German nu-metal group.)
But the real flash of brilliance is in the standing section. There, you'll find die-hard hards with mutant puffs warming around your shoulders, including air conditioning tubes, ethereal mohair sweaters, and tractor boots with soles the size of GMO baguettes. I zeroed in on a fleet of 20 men with broccoli-top hairstyles wearing black Owens jackets and versions of his muscular sneakers. They bounced around waiting for the show to start.
Thus happy converts and already aware of the alien extremes of Rick Owens' output.
