RICK OWENS. Women's FALL 2024 - PARIS FASHION WEEK

Rick Owens, once again, for his Fall 2024 collections, has held his quintessential avant-garde showpiece, at his home in Paris.  As noted with his men's Fall array, it was in lieu in Owens projecting a modest presentation of his latest collections, to be held in a low key setting, away from his beloved Palais de Tokyo grandiose.  As a way of pointing out in an obscure, yet creative perspective of a world that is in absolute disarray.

Owens enigma as the last of the independent fashion designers, could be that sole perspective that is still driving him to create.  Incorporating the mystique of the feminine and the allure of the mysterious stranger, it is these backstories that sometimes can reveal, as a case study, more or less a fascinating element to his rise to fame.  And Owens holds true of that intriguing story of how the Rick Owens signature label evolved, to which I wrote an article in 2020 detailing Owens Los Angeles roots to the avant-garde stature that he has become.  Testament to his enduring fixture within the fashion industry.

And in this past to present spectrum, the Owens story is more relevant now as a visual statement of his uncompromising creativity, that one has to admire.  And this is where a clue is offered, to why he is so inwardly drawn by the more darker influences which represent his current styles.  In very much the same vein as the men's Fall 2024 showing, in which his collection showcased a compressed and protective overlay.  The insulated and padded looks, as aesthetics do offer that escape from the turmoil of life, or in Owens dynamicism, a perspective of what could be another world.  A better place than the one we currently all residing in, although not perfect.  It is at least a possible alternative.  Are we willing to explore?

Yet, his Fall collections, for both the men's and women's arrays do not seem like an overt exploration, in the sense of looking outward for a better future.  As mentioned in numerous fashion reviews to date, as we head towards our 11th hour, there doesn't seem to be any counterculture on the horizon.  Where our society is now so entrenched with the hyperreal through the digital relays, that it seems almost unreal that the Superpowers are talking about nuclear war and a genocide, by Israel, is taking place, backed by the West.  All the while one by one, Governments are shifting further to the extreme Right of politics.   So, I would agree.  Why explore outwardly?  When you might as well shut it all off and look inward.   Fashion can assist in this process, not as a rebellion, but a rejection of its normalization. 

Owens 'bubble' like insulated styles, viewed as a modification of traditional puffer jackets, is not a new concept for his designs.  Seen over the many years of reworking mountaineering looks, however as opposed to his men's Fall collection, the women's styles feel slightly more open and tailored, and less insulated and protective .  To which I have commented on previous women's collections from Owens, during and after the pandemic, there appears to be alignment with the Oracle or prophetic Witch.  That it be these necromancers of Doom, in which Owens has conjured, this time from a parallel universe.  Which would seem, is equally in disarray or as mentioned, has healed itself through a ritualised introspection.  These otherworldly enchantresses may indeed hold an arcane solution, to all the strife

The subversive and sadomasochistic undertone to Owens Fall 2024 showings remains, and seems more evident that past stylizations.  Also, the solid black contact lenses appear to be a constant accessory for Owens's runway shows.   Revealing a deeper mysticism to the devoid and its detachment of illumination.  The eyes become stygian, where light is absorbed, not reflected.  As the darkness can be, and is, a  place of pure meditation, further accentuating Owens's inclosed personification with his latest collections.

Shall we allow the darkness in, so we may see?

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(A.Glass 2024)